Kingston and Fairfield County shoreline lead nation in property tax hikes

Homeowners in two regional housing markets experienced some of the sharpest increases in their property taxes between 2007 and 2017, according to a new data analysis released by ValuePenguin, a personal finance website operated by LendingTree.

During the 10-year period ending in 2017, residents of Kingston faced the largest effective property tax rate increase with 0.82 percent, which led to a $1,573 increase in median real estate taxes per year for homeowners. Across the border, residents in the Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford corridor paid the highest property taxes in absolute terms at $7,436 in 2017.

Housing markets in New York state and Connecticut ranked among the highest for effective property tax hikes during the 2007-2017 period, with homeowners in Rochester carrying the nation”™s highest effective tax rate at 2.95 percent ”“ the median homeowner in that market pays $4,259 on real estate taxes ”“ while the New Haven-Milford metro area shouldered a 0.77 percent increase in their effective property tax rate during that period, followed by the New London-Norwich corridor with a 0.64 percent increase and the Hartford metro area with a 0.61 percent uptick.

In comparison, the Bismarck, North Dakota, metro area saw the greatest decline in the effective property tax rate, falling by 0.80 percent over the decade.