States With the Highest Property Tax Burdens Are on the Coasts

According to new analysis of 2016 Census data, property owners in the New York metropolitan area, at $7,471, pay the highest real estate taxes among the major metropolitan areas.

New York, with the highest property tax burden, has the ninth highest estimated property tax rate. The highest estimated median property tax rates are Rochester and Buffalo, New York, at approximately 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. New Geography's Wendell Cox argued that this data can be used by corporations siting new facilities, considering moves or changes to the size of their operations.

At the metropolitan area level, median property tax data is only one of many indicators, and comparisons limited to this can be misleading. Moreover, median home owner property taxes may have little correlation with commercial or industrial property taxes, which are of particular importance in business investment. And, of course, that doesn’t include income taxes, a quite onerous burden in some states.

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