(The Center Square) – Tennessee has the 37th highest property tax rate on owner-occupied property in the country, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation.
Tennessee’s rate is 0.67% on the value of those homes, with New Jersey (2.23%), Illinois (2.08%) and New Hampshire (1.93%) holding the highest effective rates.
Hawaii (0.32%), Alabama (0.40%), Colorado (0.55%) and Wyoming (0.56%) had the lowest effective rates in the data, from the 2021 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Governments tax real property in a variety of ways: some impose a millage on the fair market value of the property, while others impose it on a percentage (the assessment ratio) of the market value,” the report said. “While values are often determined by comparable sales, jurisdictions also vary in how they calculate assessed values. While property taxes tend to be imposed at the local level, their basic framework is typically set by state law.”
As of fiscal year 2020, property taxes made up 32.2% of total state and local tax collections each year, with those taxes being used for things such as schools, roads, police departments, fire and emergency medical services.
Property taxes were 72.2% of local tax collections in that same year.
The median property taxes in the U.S. were $1,682 in 2021 with Williamson County (median $2,588) holding the highest median bill in the state and Fentress County ($463) the lowest.
The other highest Tennessee bills are in Shelby ($2,129), Davidson ($1,967), Hamilton ($1,688), Sumner ($1,679), Wilson ($1,564), Rutherford ($1,522), Montgomery ($1,497), Robertson ($1,378), Cheatham ($1,328), Maury ($1,302), Knox ($1,236), Anderson ($1,235), Blount ($1,230), Coffee ($1,215), Dickson ($1,204) and Washington ($1,200) counties.
The lowest Tennessee rates are in Campbell ($593), Van Buren ($552), McNairy ($547), Decatur ($543) and Grundy ($537) counties.
