(The Center Square) — A recent report by the Tax Foundation found that Alabama has the second-lowest property taxes nationally as a percentage of a home’s value.
Researchers from the non-partisan nonprofit that deals with tax policy found that the Yellowhammer State hits property owners with an effective rate of 0.4%.
According to the report, property taxes amounted to 32.2% of state and local tax revenues in 2020, more than any other source.
The Tax Foundation used the most recent data from 2021 in their calculations and found that the highest average property tax bills were in the Birmingham metro area, as suburban Shelby County (average of $1,167) and Jefferson County ($1,149).
Only Hawaii had lower property taxes at 0.32%, with Colorado (0.55%), Wyoming (0.56 percent) and Louisiana (0.56%) rounding out the top five.
According to the Alabama Department of Revenue, Greene County has the state’s highest property tax rates, but the average tax bill is $312 per year.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, New Jersey had the nation’s highest property taxes with an average rate of 2.23%, followed by Illinois (2.08%), New Hampshire (1.93%), Vermont (1.83%) and Connecticut (1.79%).
Alabama also outperformed its neighboring states, as Tennessee (0.67% rate) and Mississippi (0.67%) were at 37th and 36th lowest respectively. Florida had the 26th-lowest rates at 0.91%, followed by Georgia at 25th with 0.92%.
Alabama’s Choctaw County had one of the lowest average property bills nationally at $200, along with Allen, Avoyelles, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes in Louisiana and Northwest Arctic Borough and the Kusilvak Census Area in Alaska.
A pair of Louisiana parishes — Madison ($215) and Bienville ($220) — were among the lowest average property taxes, along with Sioux County, North Dakota ($223), Alabama’s Lamar County ($234) and McDowell County, West Virginia ($237).
Eleven counties had annual property taxes of more than $10,000, including Bergen, Essex, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, and Union counties in New Jersey; Nassau, New York, Rockland and Westchester Counties in New York and Fall Church County in Virginia.
