Our Methodology

Property tax is a money decision, so we think you deserve a clear, unflinching explanation of where our numbers come from. This page documents our sources, our computation, and — importantly — what our data is not.

Primary data source: US Census Bureau

Our state-level figures are anchored in the US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) five-year estimates, and the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For each US state we publish the effective property tax rate, the median annual property tax, and the median owner-occupied home value for the most recent complete survey year (currently 2022). These are the same raw inputs the Tax Foundation and academic researchers use when they publish state rankings.

How we compute the effective rate

Effective property tax rate is a ratio, not a statutory rate. We compute it as:

effective_rate = median_annual_property_tax / median_owner_occupied_home_value

This is the widely accepted definition used by the Tax Foundation and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. It captures what the average homeowner actually pays relative to what their home is worth — and ignores headline statutory rates that vary with exemptions, assessment ratios, and district-level add-ons.

Important: how county-level figures are produced

Here is exactly what that means:

• The state rate, median tax, and median home value are real published Census figures.
• The countyrates shown on our county pages are produced by varying the state baseline within a limited range to reflect typical within-state dispersion, keyed deterministically to each county's identifier so that the same county always shows the same figure.
• The county numbers are intended as a rough comparison baseline, not as a replacement for your actual county assessor's published rate or your individual tax bill.

If you need the exact rate for a specific address, please consult your county assessor's office or your most recent property tax bill. We link to state and Census resources so you can verify any figure you see here.

Cross-reference and verification

Every state and county page on PropertyTaxPeek links out to the authoritative sources behind our numbers. If you are using these figures for a decision (buying a home, moving states, disputing an assessment), please verify against at least one of these:

• Census Data Explorer — the official interface to ACS and survey tables.
• Tax Foundation — independent tax policy research, publishes annual state rankings.
• Lincoln Institute – Significant Features of the Property Tax — academic reference maintained jointly with George Washington University.
• IRS Publication 530 — official federal guidance on the SALT deduction, which governs how much of your property tax you can deduct.
• Your county assessor's office website — the only fully authoritative source for a specific parcel.

Update frequency

Property tax data is annual: the Census publishes ACS five-year estimates and the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances each year, typically with a 12\u201318 month lag. We refresh our dataset as soon as a new ACS release is available, and we label each page with the vintage of the underlying data.

Limitations you should know about

• No individual-parcel resolution. We publish medians, not your specific bill. Two houses on the same street can have very different assessed values and exemptions.
• Exemptions not included.Homestead exemptions, senior freezes, veterans' exemptions, and agricultural exemptions can dramatically reduce your effective bill. Our numbers reflect the unexempted median.
• Special district levies not broken out. School districts, fire districts, and other special assessments show up in your total bill but are rolled into the median rate we publish, not separated.
• Modeled county figures.As disclosed above, county-level rates are derived from the state baseline and should be treated as a comparison baseline rather than an assessor's figure.
• Not tax advice. Nothing on PropertyTaxPeek constitutes legal, tax, or financial advice. For decisions with money on the line, work with a licensed professional in your state.

Corrections and feedback

If you find a figure that disagrees with the authoritative source, or a state whose published numbers have been updated and ours have not, please contact us. Corrections are the fastest way we improve the dataset.

This methodology page was last reviewed in March 2026. Material changes to how we source or compute the data will be reflected here before they reach production pages.