| State | Annual property tax for median priced home | Size of median home [sqft] | Average property tax per square foot [$/sqft] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $ 738 | 2146 | $ 0.34 |
| West Virginia | $ 835 | 1752 | $ 0.48 |
| Arkansas | $ 1,003 | 1860 | $ 0.54 |
| South Carolina | $ 1,199 | 2123 | $ 0.56 |
| Mississippi | $ 1,189 | 2065 | $ 0.58 |
| Louisiana | $ 1,146 | 1955 | $ 0.59 |
| Tennessee | $ 1,400 | 2157 | $ 0.65 |
| Wyoming | $ 1,659 | 2285 | $ 0.73 |
| Indiana | $ 1,496 | 2011 | $ 0.74 |
| Kentucky | $ 1,472 | 1953 | $ 0.75 |
| Delaware | $ 1,731 | 2277 | $ 0.76 |
| Oklahoma | $ 1,520 | 1941 | $ 0.78 |
| New Mexico | $ 1,669 | 2087 | $ 0.80 |
| North Carolina | $ 1,815 | 2152 | $ 0.84 |
| Utah | $ 2,412 | 2800 | $ 0.86 |
| Idaho | $ 2,006 | 2311 | $ 0.87 |
| Arizona | $ 1,858 | 2049 | $ 0.91 |
| Nevada | $ 1,970 | 2060 | $ 0.96 |
| Georgia | $ 2,214 | 2262 | $ 0.98 |
| Colorado | $ 2,448 | 2464 | $ 0.99 |
| Missouri | $ 1,887 | 1848 | $ 1.02 |
| North Dakota | $ 2,392 | 2190 | $ 1.09 |
| Montana | $ 2,535 | 2200 | $ 1.15 |
| Virginia | $ 2,686 | 2105 | $ 1.28 |
| Florida | $ 2,555 | 1960 | $ 1.30 |
| Kansas | $ 2,643 | 2020 | $ 1.31 |
| South Dakota | $ 2,590 | 1915 | $ 1.35 |
| Ohio | $ 2,712 | 1803 | $ 1.50 |
| Minnesota | $ 3,184 | 2026 | $ 1.57 |
| Pennsylvania | $ 3,241 | 2045 | $ 1.58 |
| Michigan | $ 2,795 | 1726 | $ 1.62 |
| Nebraska | $ 3,350 | 2016 | $ 1.66 |
| Iowa | $ 2,795 | 1623 | $ 1.72 |
| Maine | $ 2,926 | 1680 | $ 1.74 |
| Maryland | $ 3,989 | 2207 | $ 1.81 |
| Hawaii | $ 2,183 | 1164 | $ 1.88 |
| Texas | $ 4,111 | 2170 | $ 1.89 |
| Oregon | $ 3,767 | 1946 | $ 1.94 |
| Alaska | $ 3,785 | 1910 | $ 1.98 |
| Washington | $ 4,361 | 2185 | $ 2.00 |
| Wisconsin | $ 3,746 | 1822 | $ 2.06 |
| Vermont | $ 4,956 | 2000 | $ 2.48 |
| Rhode Island | $ 4,854 | 1913 | $ 2.54 |
| California | $ 4,926 | 1860 | $ 2.65 |
| Connecticut | $ 6,575 | 2158 | $ 3.05 |
| Illinois | $ 5,189 | 1700 | $ 3.05 |
| Massachusetts | $ 5,813 | 1800 | $ 3.23 |
| New Hampshire | $ 6,505 | 1934 | $ 3.36 |
| New York | $ 6,450 | 1490 | $ 4.33 |
| New Jersey | $ 9,541 | 1753 | $ 5.44 |
I put this together because I always see property taxes compared across states talking about % of home value, or raw $ amount. But it always irked me because houses are different sizes in different states. So what I did here is the following:
Tabulated the median annual property tax bill for a house in each state.
Tabulated the median house size in each state.
Divided #1/#2 to get a "property tax bill per square foot".
Sorted the table from lowest to highest tax $/sqft
In this way, if we compare column #3, we actually are comparing apples to apples (same home size to same home size). You can see that column #3 is similar to column #1, since there isn't THAT much of a difference in house sizes between states, but there are some interesting differences that cause a few states to jump higher in column 3 than they are in column 1.
Some brief conclusions:
Utah is actually cheaper than it seems because their houses are HUGE
Hawaii is actually more expensive than it seems because their houses are TINY
Missouri is actually a bit more expensive than it seems because their houses are smaller than average
Connecticut is actually a bit cheaper than it seems because their houses are much bigger than their high tax state neighbors (NY, NJ, MA)
New York is much more expensive than it seems (even though it already is towards the top) due to small house sizes.
New Jersey is just super expensive for property taxes, whether you factor in house size or not.
Anyway, hope folks enjoy this little bit of data. Maybe it will help a few people make more educated decisions, maybe not. If nothing else, it's just a curious thing to analyze.
Videos
I've been debating between Houston/Dallas/LA. I've never been to California before, but everyone always says you shouldn't live there because you'll end up homeless or in a tent because the housing values are so extreme. However, when you look at property taxes the argument changes. For example, this 175k condo in Houston https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3525-Sage-Rd-APT-1407-Houston-TX-77056/28494918_zpid/ has similar property taxes to a condo in LA that costs 575k https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4915-Tyrone-Ave-APT-201-Sherman-Oaks-CA-91423/19974959_zpid/
WIth this said is Texas really a cheaper state to live in? I mean it comes less clear when you look at single family homes compared to condos because the lowest cost I see for small homes is around 900k. But you can find some omes for around 700-800k if you look. Even then if you look at this 875k home with 561 a month in property taxes https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11916-Salem-Dr-Granada-Hills-CA-91344/20108060_zpid/
compared to this 317k home that has 605 a month in Houston
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2826-Francis-St-Houston-TX-77004/27758579_zpid/.
Since I'm looking at condos though would it be cheaper to buy in California compared to Texas? Or is there other things I'm missing? I mean I hear all the homeless stories and tent city stories in the news and that always kept me from moving to Cali, but is it really that hard to live out there? I've always considered LA as a place to move because it seems like there would be a lot more to do there, but the news stories and cost of living have always scared me away.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php
Texas is often criticized for it's "obfuscated" tax burden. But Texas's sales tax of 6.25% is lower than NYs 8.875%, and Californias 7.25%. Average property tax in Texas is 1.60% (double than Californias but still low).
Another thing I don't get is this: if I live in California and earn 50k, I pay 10k in taxes (20%). So if I live in a no-income-tax state, I shouldn't care about additional minor taxtations as long as they don't amount to 20% or more.
I am sure I may be wrong about 80% of this, but I struggle to figure out how.
I've been debating between Houston/Dallas/LA. I've never been to California before, but everyone always says you shouldn't live there because you'll end up homeless or in a tent because the housing values are so extreme. However, when you look at property taxes the argument changes. For example, this 175k condo in Houston https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3525-Sage-Rd-APT-1407-Houston-TX-77056/28494918_zpid/ has similar property taxes to a condo in LA that costs 575k https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4915-Tyrone-Ave-APT-201-Sherman-Oaks-CA-91423/19974959_zpid/
With this said, is Texas really a cheaper state to live in? I mean it comes less clear when you look at single family homes compared to condos because the lowest cost I see for small homes is around 900k. But you can find some homes for around 700-800k if you look. Even then if you look at this 875k home with 561 a month in property taxes https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11916-Salem-Dr-Granada-Hills-CA-91344/20108060_zpid/
compared to this 317k home that has 605 a month in Houston
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2826-Francis-St-Houston-TX-77004/27758579_zpid/.
Since I'm looking at condos though would it be cheaper to buy in California compared to Texas? Or is there other things I'm missing? I mean I hear all the homeless stories and tent city stories in the news and that always kept me from moving to Cali, but is it really that hard to live out there? I've always considered LA as a place to move because it seems like there would be a lot more to do there, but the news stories and cost of living have always scared me away.
Also, the lowest I'm finding for even a small home or condo in any of the Texas cities is around 300k, and at that rate if you get a 600k condo in LA, you would be 2x the amount of property taxes each month 300 in LA vs 600 mo in Texas.
I live in Austin, my brother lives in the Inland Empire in SoCal. Our households bring in similar incomes and home values are similar. When we’ve compared taxation and COL (we pay more property tax in TX but don’t have state income tax, groceries are way cheaper in Cali but gas is not)… basically it shook out fairly close for us but seems you’ll get more services & more of a safety net in CA with your tax money compared to Texas. 🤷♀️
Also, your taxes don’t go up, unlike texas where it is skyrocketing.
Someone from r/california is flexing about property taxes for their state. What to see where Texas is?
https://professpost.com/top-10-u-s-states-with-the-highest-property-taxes-for-homeowners-in-2025/
I know it’s popular to hate on Texas on Reddit, and if you take issue with a regressive tax system that’s fair, but these low effort misleading posts just trying to dunk on Texas with hundreds of upvotes… come on now 🤠
Sources:
https://itep.org/whopays/california-who-pays-7th-edition/
https://itep.org/texas-who-pays-7th-edition/
Lets get into it, off the bat:
Property Tax: California 1%… Texas 1.7%
Average home price: California $786,000…. Texas: $307,000
Property tax for average home: California $7,860 annually…. Texas $5,219 annually
Homes in Texas are MUCH cheaper than California, in fact good luck finding a house in any nice area if any major city in CA for less than $1 million. Anyway, that greatly offsets how much property tax you will be paying. Off the bat it costs more to own a house in California, by a strong margin.
Next lets look at income tax, assuming $100K income (which again is low for CA and high for TX)
California: ~ 6.4% income tax plus 1.1% state disability insurance. Yields around $7.5K on $100K
Texas: ZERO state income tax, and zero disability.
Alright, so California’s state income tax burden is about 7.5% higher than TX.
Combined between property tax and income tax you’re looking at about $16.3K for California and only $5,219 for TX.
Now sales tax: California 7.25% - 10.75%…. Texas 6.25% - 8.25%
Again…. Higher
Vehicle taxes: California YES…. Texas NO
Gas taxes: California: $.51/gallon… Texas: $.21/gallon
Some other considerations: Literally everything is cheaper in Texas. Food, groceries, beverages, alcohol, utility water, cost of labor, Etc.
As someone who is from NY and has lived in: NY, CT, CA, TX and FL. I can say, without a single doubt that TX was by far the overall cheapest to live in, where my money went the furthest. Living in NYC and in CA was so absurdly expensive, and the taxes were fucking AWFUL.
Food is California is basically 2x the cost for 1/2 the amount of food compared to TX.
Also - I am fully aware I am comparing different home values (average state values). Comparing comparably based on sq footage, bedrooms and bathrooms, and comparable areas will only work against California. But I’m happy to compare a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom 3,000 sq foot home in Los Angeles or SF to one in Houston or Dallas.
Anyway, CMV
There is data available for this, and which is higher depends on your income. If you are low income, you tax burden is lower in California than in Texas. As your income increases, Texas gets lower.
Data here.If you click on Texas, you'll see that if you're in the bottom of the income scale, you're paying over 12%, and that goes down as you have more income (i.e. it's very regressive). At the highest income level you're down to 4.6%. In California at the bottom of the income scale you're paying almost 12% (which isn't that much less, but is less) and the amount you pay stays fairly constant as income climbs - the highest income pays 12%.
So it really depends on your income.
Your property tax numbers are waaaay off. Most people who buy/own homes in CA are not paying 700k+. Not even close.
You're forgetting prop 13 in CA. You get locked into home prices tax value when you buy. In Texas they reassess every few years. So a lot of people, mostly older people who bought decades ago, do pay much lower taxes than in TX because their property tax is so low. However if you move to CA and buy now, you're probably going to pay comparable tax to TX now, but you won't in 10 years.
So it's not incorrect to say taxes are lower in CA for a lot of people, but it's a bit disingenuous to say they are lower for new arrivals. You also get a lot more for your taxes in CA than TX, and your burden will probably lessen over time, which isn't the case in TX.
New Hampshire has a very high property tax but low income