Highest bills · 2026
Most expensive property tax bills
The 30 counties in this almanac with the highest median annual property tax bills — measured in dollars, not rate. A high-rate state with cheap housing can rank below a low-rate state with expensive houses, which is why this list looks different from the rate rankings.
| # | County | State | Median annual bill | Effective rate | Median home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rockland (New City) | NY | $16,958 | 2.85% | $595,000 |
| 2 | Westchester (White Plains) | NY | $14,670 | 2.20% | $668,600 |
| 3 | Bergen (Hackensack) | NJ | $14,443 | 2.43% | $593,200 |
| 4 | Essex (Newark) | NJ | $14,337 | 3.39% | $423,500 |
| 5 | Nassau (Mineola) | NY | $12,415 | 2.05% | $605,600 |
| 6 | Marin (San Rafael) | CA | $11,745 | 0.81% | $1,450,000 |
| 7 | Union (Elizabeth) | NJ | $11,225 | 2.45% | $458,200 |
| 8 | Morris (Morristown) | NJ | $11,084 | 2.05% | $540,700 |
| 9 | Manhattan (Manhattan) | NY | $10,926 | 0.92% | $1,187,600 |
| 10 | Travis (Austin) | TX | $10,815 | 2.10% | $515,000 |
| 11 | Fairfield (Bridgeport) | CT | $10,638 | 1.85% | $575,000 |
| 12 | Suffolk (Riverhead) | NY | $10,560 | 2.10% | $502,800 |
| 13 | Santa Clara (San Jose) | CA | $10,100 | 0.65% | $1,555,600 |
| 14 | Somerset (Somerville) | NJ | $10,001 | 1.81% | $552,100 |
| 15 | Hunterdon (Flemington) | NJ | $10,001 | 1.93% | $517,200 |
| 16 | Monmouth (Freehold) | NJ | $10,000 | 1.48% | $674,100 |
| 17 | Hudson (Jersey City) | NJ | $9,752 | 1.69% | $577,400 |
| 18 | Merrimack (Concord) | NH | $9,433 | 2.45% | $385,000 |
| 19 | Middlesex (New Brunswick) | NJ | $9,427 | 2.25% | $419,100 |
| 20 | Passaic (Paterson) | NJ | $9,303 | 2.50% | $372,100 |
| 21 | Burlington (Mount Holly) | NJ | $9,180 | 2.55% | $360,000 |
| 22 | San Francisco (San Francisco) | CA | $9,100 | 0.65% | $1,400,000 |
| 23 | Chittenden (Burlington) | VT | $8,973 | 1.85% | $485,000 |
| 24 | Orange (Goshen) | NY | $8,943 | 2.45% | $365,000 |
| 25 | Rockingham (Brentwood) | NH | $8,913 | 1.55% | $575,000 |
| 26 | San Mateo (Redwood City) | CA | $8,800 | 0.55% | $1,600,000 |
| 27 | Alameda (Oakland) | CA | $8,725 | 0.80% | $1,090,600 |
| 28 | Sussex (Newton) | NJ | $8,568 | 2.32% | $369,400 |
| 29 | Lake (Waukegan) | IL | $8,510 | 2.70% | $315,000 |
| 30 | Mercer (Trenton) | NJ | $8,510 | 2.79% | $305,000 |
What this ranking actually shows
This list combines two things: tax rate and home values. A 1% rate on a $1.5M home produces a bigger bill than a 2.5% rate on a $200K home. The counties at the top of this list tend to be either (a) high-rate states with median home values, like Cook County (Illinois, ~2.2% on $300K+ homes), or (b) low-rate states with extremely expensive housing, like Santa Clara County (California, ~0.65% on $1.5M+ homes).
If you're trying to estimate your bill on your specific home, the rate ranking is more useful than this one — your home value is your home value regardless of what the median is. But for comparing the actual financial impact of homeownership across markets, this is the cleaner view.
For the rate-only view, see the states-by-rate ranking.