US homeowners paid more than US$4,000 in property taxes on average last year, with total levies rising by the most in five years.

Data collected by Attom, a real estate data firm, which tracked property taxes for 89.4 million single-family homes, shows that governments collected more than US$363 billion in 2023. That’s an increase of 6.9 per cent and almost double the 3.6 per cent gain a year earlier.

“Property taxes took an unusually high turn upward last year, pushing effective rates up, while huge gaps in average tax bills between different parts of the country remained in place,” Rob Barber, chief executive officer at Attom, said in a statement.

“The tax increases were likely connected, at least in part, to inflationary pressures on the cost of operating local governments and schools, along with rising public employee wages and other major expenses,” Barber said.

The highest effective property tax rates in 2023 were Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and Nebraska.

Nationally, the average property tax rose by 4.1 per cent in 2023, but there were large disparities in how much homeowners pay in different parts of the country – both in terms of percentage change and in the overall tax bill. For instance, Charlotte, North Carolina homeowners saw a 31.5 per cent increase last year, while property taxes in Atlanta rose 15.2 per cent, according to the report.

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Meanwhile,  among the 1,502 US counties with at least 10,000 single-family homes, 21 had an average property tax bill that exceeded US$10,000. These homes were generally concentrated in the New York City metro area. BLOOMBERG