Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published February 25, 2026

2026 Property Tax Increases: What Homeowners Need to Know

Updated September 2026 · 14 min read

1. The Headline Numbers

In 2024, state and local governments collected $797 billion in property tax revenue, an 8.2% jump from the prior year (source: U.S. Census Bureau via the National Association of Home Builders: March 2025). That is not a one-year anomaly. Redfin found that property tax payments rose nearly 30% from 2019 to 2024, to a national median of $250 a month (October 2024), a figure the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) also cites.

For individual homeowners, those billions translate to real monthly pain. According to ATTOM's revised 2024 Annual Property Tax Report, the average property tax on a U.S. single-family home rose to $4,300, up 5.8% from the previous year, with an average effective tax rate of 0.86% nationally.

The newer numbers point the same direction. ATTOM's 2025 report (released April 2026) counts $396.8 billion levied on 89.6 million single-family homes, up 3.7%, and an average bill of $4,427, up 3%. The detail that matters for 2026 is the rate: average home values slipped 1.7% while the effective rate climbed to 0.9%, the highest since 2020. When values flatten and bills still rise, the increase is coming from the rate side, which is exactly where millage rates come in (more on that in section 5).

If your tax bill feels larger than it used to, you are not imagining it. The $797 billion figure above is total state and local property tax revenue across every property type, residential included, so it is a scale indicator, not a per-homeowner number. The question that matters for your own bill is whether your assessment has outpaced the actual market value of your home. For most homeowners, the answer is worth investigating. Our savings calculator can give you a quick estimate in seconds.

2. Why 2026 Is Hitting Harder

Many homeowners are asking why this year's tax bill feels especially steep. The answer lies in reassessment timing. Most counties reassess property values on a cycle: annually, biennially, or triennially (every one, two, or three years). That means the explosive home price gains of 2021 and 2022 are only now fully reflected in many homeowners' assessed values.

During the pandemic, home prices rose at historic rates. The typical home gained 30 to 40% in value between early 2020 and mid-2022, according to Zillow Research. But in jurisdictions that reassess every two to four years, those price spikes did not hit tax bills until 2024, 2025, or 2026. Homeowners in these areas are now receiving assessment notices that reflect peak pandemic pricing, even though the market has since cooled in many areas.

Cook County, Illinois is the poster child for this phenomenon. On the tax year 2024 bills mailed in late 2025, the median City of Chicago homeowner saw a 16.7% increase, to $4,457 (source: Cook County Treasurer, Tax Year 2024 Bill Analysis). In some neighborhoods, the pain was far worse: the median West Garfield Park bill rose 133%, and North Lawndale's rose 99%. What happened? The Cook County Board of Review cut Chicago commercial assessed values by 17.5% while trimming residential values just 1.5%, shifting about 3.5% of the tax base onto homeowners, who paid $469 million more in total. The Tax Year 2025 analysis (published August 2026) shows the 32nd straight annual increase: $19.9 billion billed, up 3.9%, with homeowners absorbing $593 million more. The freshly reassessed north and northwest suburbs took the biggest hit, a median bill of $8,007 (up 6.7%), and the second-installment bills were due October 1, 2026. If you own a home in Illinois, now is the time to review your assessment. See our Cook County appeal guide for detailed instructions.

The pattern repeats across the country. States with multi-year reassessment cycles (including New York, Illinois, and parts of Ohio and Georgia) are seeing the biggest single-year jumps because several years of appreciation get compressed into one reassessment. Even in states that reassess annually, assessors often lag the market by a year or more, meaning the 2021-2022 surge is still rippling through.

3. Hardest-Hit States

Property tax burdens vary enormously by state. ATTOM's state rankings show which states have the highest effective tax rates and the steepest average bills. The 2025 report (April 2026) keeps Illinois on top at 1.84%, followed by New Jersey at 1.58% and Vermont at 1.40%, with Hawaii (0.33%), Idaho (0.39%), and Wyoming (0.40%) at the bottom. Here are the states where homeowners are feeling it most.

Highest Effective Property Tax Rates (2024)

Highest Average Tax Bills (2025)

The 2026 levies are now locked in for some states, and they confirm the trend. The Minnesota Department of Revenue certified 2026 property tax levies of $13.78 billion in February 2026, up $873 million (6.8%) over 2025, only slightly below the $948.2 million preliminary estimate it published in November. Counties (up 8.1%) and cities (up 8.7%) grew fastest. That is on top of increases already baked into 2025 bills.

If you live in a high-rate state, the stakes of an overassessment are amplified. A 15% overassessment in New Jersey costs far more in dollar terms than the same percentage overassessment in a low-rate state like Hawaii (0.31%). Our property tax appeal statistics page breaks down overassessment costs by state.

4. Relief Programs Available in 2026

Legislatures across the country are responding to constituent anger over rising property taxes. Several significant relief measures are now in effect or under consideration for 2026. Here is what is available, state by state.

New Laws and Proposals

Ongoing Relief Programs to Check

Beyond new legislation, most states offer standing programs that many homeowners never claim. These include:

• Homestead exemptions: Available in most states, these reduce the taxable value of your primary residence. See our complete exemptions guide.
• Senior and disability freezes: Many states freeze assessed values or tax bills for homeowners over 65 or those with qualifying disabilities. See our senior appeal guide.
• Circuit breaker credits: Income-based programs that cap property taxes as a percentage of household income. Common in states like Vermont, Maryland, and Michigan.
• Deferral programs: Some states allow seniors or low-income homeowners to defer property tax payments until the home is sold, preventing displacement from rising bills.

These programs vary significantly by state and county. Check your state's appeal page on AppealDesk for links to your county assessor's exemption application.

5. Why Your County Is Raising Its Millage Rate in 2026

Every property tax bill has two halves: the assessed value (what sections 2 and 3 are about) and the rate that value is multiplied by. In Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina that rate is quoted in mills, and one mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value. A home with $300,000 of taxable value pays $300 a year for every mill levied on it, so a county that moves from 18.5 to 19.5 mills adds $300 to that bill without changing the assessment at all. That is the increase a lot of homeowners are seeing on 2026 notices, and it is the one an assessment appeal cannot touch.

The good news is that most millage states force a rate increase into the open. Florida law requires each taxing authority to publish its rolled-back rate, the millage that would raise the same revenue as last year, on the August TRIM notice, then hold two public hearings; a rate above the rolled-back rate has to be advertised under the heading "Notice of Proposed Tax Increase" (source: Florida Department of Revenue). Georgia works the same way under its Taxpayer Bill of Rights: any levy above the roll-back rate requires a "Notice of Property Tax Increase" and three public hearings, one of them in the evening (source: O.C.G.A. 48-5-32.1). That is why a county can advertise a "tax increase" in a year when its rate does not move: if reassessments pushed the tax digest up, holding the rate steady still collects more. Mississippi requires a quarter-page "Notice of a Tax Increase" advertisement for two consecutive weeks before the September levy, gives any citizen the right to speak before the vote, and caps total receipts at 10% above any of the prior three years (source: Miss. Code 27-39-203).

Michigan runs the rule in reverse, and the mechanism is more specific than a bare growth threshold. Its Headlee Amendment requires each local unit to calculate a Millage Reduction Fraction every year: prior-year taxable value (minus losses like demolitions), times the state's inflation rate multiplier, divided by current-year taxable value (minus new construction and other additions), capped at 1.0000 (source: MCL 211.34d and Michigan State Tax Commission Bulletin 2 of 2026). Because new construction is stripped out of the current-year side before the comparison, a district can add substantial new development without that growth alone forcing a rollback. Treasury's Bulletin 14 of 2025 sets the 2026 inflation rate multiplier at 1.027 for use in both formulas: each parcel's Proposal A capped value and the Headlee Millage Reduction Fraction. A Headlee rollback can be restored by a voter-approved override election. Pennsylvania's caps are uneven by level of government: school districts generally may raise taxes only up to the state's Act 1 index, 3.5% for 2026-27, without voter approval, though a district can exceed the index without a referendum if the state approves an exception for debt service, special education cost growth, or rising pension costs. Counties and most municipalities are not governed by Act 1 at all; they answer to their own statutory millage caps instead, 25 mills for general county purposes absent a court petition to exceed it and 30 mills for boroughs and first class townships, while narrower levies like debt service sit outside those caps (source: Pennsylvania Bulletin). Ohio's HB 335, effective March 2026, now limits how much revenue unvoted "inside" millage can gain from a reappraisal.

2026 Millage Decisions Homeowners Are Searching For

• Gwinnett County, GA: held its general fund rate at 6.950 mills for the seventh year (adopted August 4, 2026), but because the rollback rate was 6.792 mills, state law required it to be announced as a tax increase (source: Gwinnett County).
• Cobb County, GA: kept its 8.46-mill general fund rate for 2026, advertised as 4.07% above the rollback rate, adopted July 28, 2026 after three hearings (source: Cobb County).
• DeKalb County, GA: adopted a total unincorporated rate of 21.310 mills on July 7, 2026, one-half mill above 2025, which the county estimated at $69 a year on a $364,000 home (source: Decaturish).
• Lowndes County, MS: supervisors approved the FY2026 budget on September 15, 2025 with about a $2 million county-side increase, partly offset by a lower school district levy, which WCBI put at roughly $11 per $100,000 of home value (source: WCBI). The Dispatch reported the county operations levy rose 2 mills, to 45, with debt on the CINCO industrial site borrowing among the reasons given. Because Mississippi assesses homes at 10% of value, 2 mills on a $350,000 home is $70 a year.
• Apopka, FL (Orange County): after budget-hearing pushback, the city commission set a tentative rate of 4.6761 mills for FY2027 (down from the initially proposed 5.1876 mills), and the final rate went to the September 16, 2026 adoption hearing (source: The Apopka Chief).

What You Can and Cannot Do About a Rate Increase

• You cannot appeal the rate individually. Value adjustment boards and boards of equalization have no jurisdiction over millage; the rate is set by elected officials through the budget.
• You can speak at the hearings. The dates are printed on the TRIM notice in Florida and in the required advertisements in Georgia and Mississippi, and the whole point of the notice is public comment before the vote.
• You can appeal the value the mills are multiplied by. Florida gives you 25 days from the TRIM mailing to petition the Value Adjustment Board, Georgia gives you 45 days from the assessment notice, and Mississippi takes written objections at the Board of Supervisors' equalization meeting on the first Monday in August. Every dollar of assessed value you remove is removed from every mill levied on it.
• You can shrink the base with exemptions. Florida's homestead exemption removes up to $51,411 of taxable value for 2026 ($25,000 from every levy plus an inflation-indexed $26,411 from non-school levies) (see our millage rate explainer for how the two tiers apply differently to school and non-school taxes); Mississippi's homestead credit is worth up to $300, and owners 65 or older or disabled are exempt on the first $7,500 of assessed value.

For the full arithmetic, including how each state's assessment ratio changes what a mill is worth, see the millage rate explainer.

6. What You Can Do Right Now

Waiting does not help. Property tax appeal deadlines are strict, and most states give you only 30 to 90 days after your assessment notice arrives. Here are the three steps every homeowner should take this year.

7. The Assessment Ratio Trap

One of the most misunderstood aspects of property taxes is the assessment ratio (also called the assessment level or classification rate). Many states do not tax the full market value of your home. Instead, they apply a ratio that reduces the market value to a lower "assessed value." This makes your assessment look reasonable, even when it is significantly inflated.

Here is how it works in practice:

Seeing an assessed value of $100,000 on a home you know is worth $400,000 makes many Tennessee homeowners assume their assessment is a bargain. But the key question is not whether the assessed value looks low in absolute terms. The question is whether the implied market value (assessed value divided by the ratio) matches what your home would actually sell for. If Tennessee's assessment implies your home is worth $400,000 but comparable sales show it is worth $350,000, you are being overassessed by $12,500 in assessed value terms, which could easily cost you $200 to $500 per year depending on your local millage rate.

Colorado's split rates are especially tricky, because two different bases each get multiplied by their own set of mills, not a single blended rate. For a $500,000 Denver-area home, school taxes are figured on $35,250 of assessed value ($500,000 x 7.05%), while local taxes are figured on $30,600 of assessed value (($500,000 minus the $70,000-capped 10% local-only reduction) x 6.8%). Using Denver's own certified 2024 mill levy (52.311 school mills, 26.891 combined county, municipal, and special-district mills, source: Denver Abstract of Assessment), the school portion comes to $35,250 x 0.052311 ≈ $1,844 and the local portion to $30,600 x 0.026891 ≈ $823, for a total bill of roughly $2,667. If the underlying actual value is 15% too high, roughly $5,000 of assessed value on each side is being taxed that should not be, and it compounds every year the value goes unchallenged.

For a deeper dive into how assessment ratios work across all 50 states, see our assessment ratio by state guide and the assessment ratio glossary entry.

8. 2026 Filing Deadline Calendar

Missing your deadline means waiting an entire year (or longer) to appeal. Below are estimated 2026 filing windows for the 10 largest states by population. For a complete 50-state list with exact dates, see our property tax appeal deadlines page.

Important: These are estimated dates. Your exact deadline depends on when your county mails assessment notices and any local variations. Always verify the deadline with your county assessor's office or check your notice for the appeal filing date. Our full deadline guide covers all 50 states with more detail.

For a walkthrough of what to expect after filing, see how long a property tax appeal takes.

Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau Quarterly Tax Revenue, NAHB (March 2025), ATTOM 2025 Annual Property Tax Report (April 2026), Redfin (October 2024), Florida DOR additional homestead exemption adjustment (2026), Minnesota Department of Revenue (certified 2026 levies), Cook County Treasurer (Tax Year 2025 Bill Analysis), Bankrate / National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Michigan Department of Treasury State Tax Commission Bulletins 14-of-2025 and 2-of-2026, MCL 211.34d, Pennsylvania Department of Education Act 1 index, County Code and Borough Code millage caps, Florida Department of Revenue, Colorado General Assembly HB24B-1001, Denver Assessor 2024 Abstract of Assessment, Indiana General Assembly fiscal analysis, state legislative records.