By the numbers
The residents of Milwaukee, Dane and Winnebago counties paid the highest effective property tax rates in Wisconsin last year, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.
The map above shows the average effective tax rate — the average amount of residential property taxes actually paid, expressed as a percentage of home value — of the 25 largest counties in the state, calculated from American Community Survey data on median home values and median property taxes. Those counties contain about four-fifths of Wisconsin’s population. The survey did not collect suitable data on the other 47 smaller counties in Wisconsin.
In 2023, the median Milwaukee County household paid $4,210 in total property taxes on a home valued at $232,500, an effective property tax rate of 1.81%.
Dane County had the second highest effective rate of 1.57%. Dane County households paid the largest median property tax bill, at about $6,170, but the median Dane County home value was 69% higher than that of Milwaukee County, at $393,500. As a result, the effective tax rate was smaller than in Milwaukee County.
In Winnebago County, the median home value was $222,400 and the median property tax was $3,362, for an effective tax rate of 1.51%.
Ozaukee and Waukesha counties’ households had the second and third highest median property tax bills, respectively. However, since those counties’ median home values were also among the highest in the state, the effective tax rates in those counties were among the lowest of Wisconsin’s large counties, at just 1.08% and 1.09%.
As the Tax Foundation has put it in its annual report on property taxes, the wide variation across many counties, municipalities and school districts makes it difficult to determine and compare legal tax rates across a state.
However, because survey data from the Census Bureau measures the tax bills that homeowners ultimately pay, it is possible to calculate the effective tax rate for the average household within a county.
The Census Bureau provides annual estimates for counties with populations of 65,000 or more. For 2023, that includes 25 Wisconsin counties. Census figures for smaller counties are five-year averages, making calculations involving current home prices unsuitable.
The underlying numbers
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