Property Taxes at the State and Local Level Have Increased Nearly 20% in Last 4-years

Analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Tax Data reveals that U.S. property owners paid $633.9 billion in taxes in the four quarters ending in Q3 2020. Four-quarter property tax revenues have declined just once over the last eight years and are more than $100 billion (19.2%) higher than they were four years ago. Year-over-year growth of four-quarter property tax revenue reaccelerated to 5.1% after dipping to 4.8% in Q2 2020. Prior to the second quarter, growth had accelerated each of the previous five quarters and has not turned negative since 2012. Corporate income tax revenues (+7.6%) grew the most in percentage terms, followed by property (+5.1%), individual income (+3.3%), and sales taxes (-0.8%). Property taxes accounted for 39.6% of state and local tax receipts, a -0.5-percentage point decline over the previous quarter. In terms of the share of total receipts, property taxes were followed by individual income taxes (29.1%), sales taxes (26.7%), and corporate taxes (4.6%).