Here's Who Pays The Most (And Least) In Property Taxes

A new report out this week from RealtyTrac details the big differences in property tax across the U.S. Sorry, New Yorkers.

For America's homeowners, it's not just where you live that determines what your current property tax bill looks like relative to others.

While geography is the big factor in how much you pay, a new study from real estate database and consultancy RealtyTrac breaks it down along other lines, including how long a person has owned a home, and how much the home is worth.

It all contributed to wide variation in the average amount in property taxes paid in 2014, as well as U.S. homeowners' average effective property tax rate—or the amount of property taxes paid as a percentage of a single-family home's value.

Here's a look at who paid what in U.S. property taxes in 2014.

The highest effective property tax rates last year went to people who had owned their homes from five to 15 years, at an average rate of 1.34% of the value of their single-family home.

Westchester ($56,124), New York ($38,574), and Nassau ($11,587) counties in New York, plus Marin County, Calif. ($11,422), and Bergen County, N.J. ($11,159) had the highest average 2014 property tax bills out of 1,042 counties analyzed.

The states with the highest average property taxes were New York ($15,625), New Jersey ($8,108), New Hampshire ($5,795), Connecticut ($5,646), and Hawaii ($5,024).

While the states with the lowest average property taxes were Alabama ($618), West Virginia ($931), New Mexico ($1,096), Tennessee ($1,116), and Indiana ($1,418).

New York and Alabama also had the highest and lowest effective property tax rate, at 3.01% and 0.40%, respectively.

Homes valued near the lowest and highest ends of the spectrum had the highest property tax rates in 2014, with homes worth less than $50,000 and from $2 million to $5 million paying rates of 1.68% and 1.77%, respectively. The average 2014 rate was 1.29%.

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