Report: U.S. Property Taxes Soar by 7%, Sanctuary State of New Jersey Hit the Hardest

Property taxes for U.S. single-family homes soared to $363 billion in 2023, a nearly seven percent increase from 2022 and the most dramatic surge in five years, according to an April report from real estate data analytics firm ATTOM.

The analysis, compiled with data from 89.4 million homes, revealed that the increase in property taxes from 2022 to 2023 was almost double the growth rate from 2021 to 2022. 

The average single-family property household paid $4,062 in property taxes last year, but 21 counties had an average annual property tax greater than $10,000 — 12 of which are in the New York City metropolitan area. 

The highest average was in Essex County, New Jersey, with single-family homeowners paying about $13,145 in 2023.

Real estate experts have cited “inflationary pressures” as a factor as to why the taxes have increased so much.

“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,” said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber. “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 explained that “ongoing disparities in how much homeowners pay in different parts of the country are usually related to a couple of important things: varying levels of government services and reduced economies of scale in metro areas with many small municipalities that each maintain separate local governments and school systems.”

Forbes finance reporter Natalie Campisi warned that homeowners who have not “factored such increases into their housing budget may be surprised at tax time” in an article reacting to the alarming data.

In New Jersey, where average property taxes are the highest for Americans, illegal immigrants were enabled to obtain well-paying licensed jobs after Gov. Phil Murphy (D) passed Senate Bill 2455 in 2020.

Prior to that law, immigrants were required to have a “lawful presence in the United States” to qualify for a license, Breitbart News reported.

The legislation was written to benefit 500,000 “undocumented residents” in New Jersey, NJ.com reported at the time.

Murphy has been forced to face the consequences of his actions, begging migrants to stop coming to his sanctuary state in 2023 because they are overwhelming welfare and aid services, even with his loose job licensing requirements.

“I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” the progressive governor said last September. “You need scale, enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything that we can afford. Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it. I would suspect that that will continue to be the case.”

A recent poll of voters in the deep blue state found that Democrats, independents, and Republicans are souring on the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies, Breitbart News reported.

While New Jerseyans are paying more and more in property taxes each year, they are growing tired of supporting a perpetually failing migrant welfare system.