Property Taxes: Highest Rates Chill Northeast

New York and New Jersey are the states with the highest-taxed counties, but upstate New York has it the worst.

Counties in upstate New York put a proportionally higher tax burden on homeowners, despite lower home values there, so their tax rates are effectively higher, reports the nonpartisan tax research group The Tax Foundation.

For those of you who've wondered how taxes for owner-occupied homes in your county fare compared to others in the U.S., the Tax Foundation has recently supplied this information on the 792 counties with populations of 65,000 or more. The 2009 data compares counties and taxes, relative to owner-occupied home values -- information which should be useful to homeowners curious about whether their taxes rate low or high.

"We are putting it out there because we get so many questions about taxes," says Bill Ahern, Director of Policy and Communications for the Tax Foundation. And while many are eager to find out how their county ranks, residents of Westchester County may be taking the findings in stride: They paid the highest median real estate taxes in the country. "We believe the market value of the home is the proper base for levying the tax," says Ahern. "After all, if you lived in a much biggest house you'd pay more, a smaller house would mean less. That seems right for a property tax."