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National Overview

National Property Tax Statistics

The big picture, before you drill into your state and county.

History of Property Tax Take a Survey Browse by State Search Frequently Asked Questions Enforcement Law by State What's Taxed by State Schools and Property Tax Federal Legal Baseline Local Government Tax Dependency The Replacement Question Replacement Funding Case Studies Research Standards Research Progress
Total property tax collected (US)
$724.785B
Median effective property tax rate
0.98%

Total collected: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (item code T01, survey year 2024, fiscal years ending July 1 2023-June 30 2024) - reported directly by Census. Effective rate: an Untax the Roof calculation, not a figure Census publishes directly - median real estate tax paid ($2,969) divided by median home value ($303,400), both direct Census ACS 5-Year Estimates (2019-2023), pulled 2026-09-15.

National Collections History, 1992-2025

Census publishes more than one property-tax series. Its 2024 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances reports $724.785 billion for governments' fiscal-year-based finance data (the figure shown above) — while the four 2024 Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue (QTAX) estimates sum to $819.867 billion on a calendar-quarter basis. The two use different reference periods and estimation/revision systems and should not be substituted for one another.

The QTAX series is the only one with a long, consistent annual history back to 1992, which makes it the right one to show a nationwide trend:

Year Annual total (nominal)
1992 $180.82B
2000 $247.457B
2008 $431.549B
2016 $539.365B
2020 $642.955B
2024 $819.867B
2025 $833.329B

Selected years from the full 1992-2025 annual series (34 years). Nominal dollars — not adjusted for inflation. Cumulative nominal collections 1992-2025: $14.748 trillion. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue (QTAX), T01 Property Taxes — FRED series QTAXT01QTAXCAT1USNO.

See the 50-state + D.C. local property tax revenue comparison →

How many people actually lose their homes over unpaid property tax?

No single national agency tracks "homes lost to tax foreclosure" the way the mortgage industry tracks mortgage foreclosures - it's handled by 3,000+ separate counties. These numbers, used together, are the real picture that exists instead of one master total.

~$15 billion in property tax delinquencies nationally, per year NCLC, 2012 - dated, but no more recent comprehensive national estimate exists.
30 states + DC let local governments sell property-tax liens to private investors instead of collecting the debt themselves
18% to 50% interest/penalty rates homeowners often face trying to redeem their property after a tax lien sale - far above ordinary lending rates
8,500+ homes / $780M+ foreclosed and sold 2014-2021, with governments keeping equity beyond the tax debt owed - ruled unconstitutional nationwide in 2023, but this is only the states studied, not a full national count

A $200,000 home can be sold at a tax lien sale over a debt of only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars - the sale is triggered by the unpaid tax amount, not the home's value, which is exactly how homeowners lose not just the house but the equity in it.

Sources: National Consumer Law Center; Pacific Legal Foundation [1] [2]

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