Many years ago when I moved to Florida I heard that the reason Floridians didn’t pay state income tax is because their property taxes are much higher than other states. Made sense to me at the time, I was 22 and didn’t own a property, so what did I know about the facts. Fast forward years later, we bought a house and our property taxes seemed reasonable but as I talked to more and more clients and investors from out of town, I was pretty shocked. Could it be that Florida actually has pretty “low” property taxes? Even when some of the homeowners in Port Royal are paying over $150,000 annually?

The Average Median Property Tax Rate Across America

The average median property tax rate is 1.31%. That means that a home with a value of $200,000, on average, annually pays about $2,620 in property taxes according to research done by CoreLogic’s data team.

The highest median property tax rate is 2.67% and that is in Illinois, with Hawaii being the lowest at .31%, but would would want to live in Hawaii, with the picture perfect beaches, ridiculously beautiful scenery and peaceful living.

Most of the higher tax rates are seen in the northeast, however, an interesting exception is Texas with a rate of 2.17%

So where does this leave the Sunshine State? Around the average rate at 1.32%. But let’s break that down a little further. We aren’t JUST looking at the state, each county has it’s own rate too. Here is where things got interesting for me, guess who’s in the Top 10 counties with the LOWEST tax rates? Collier County! #3 to be exact. The only one’s lower are 1. Walton (Panhandle) 2. Monroe (Florida Keys) 3. Collier. The tax rate is 11.7923.

As you can see, Florida, specifically Collier County is a great location to purchase a property. If you are a full-time resident you also receive the homestead tax exemption rate. Have you been considering buying property in Naples for awhile? Start your search here to see if now may be the right time to buy.