Property Tax Bite

New Jersey has claimed yet another dubious honor. Numerous New Jersey counties, along with several New York counties have the highest property tax burdens in the nation.

Seven counties in New Jersey ranked in the nation's top 10 highest property tax bills from 2005 to 2007, according to a recently released study by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit group monitoring fiscal policy.

Hunterdon ranked highest on the list at third place with a median property tax of $7,708, according to the report. Bergen, Somerset, Essex, Morris, Union and Passaic counties also made the top 10.

The 14 highest counties on the list were all in the New York-metropolitan area. West Chester County in New York had the highest median property tax.

The report factored in updated 2007 Census data from the American Community Survey, which includes three-year averages in places with populations greater than 20,000.

Many of the counties that ranked highest for property taxes also had some of the nation's highest property values. The median home value in Hunterdon County is $459,200. In Somerset County, the median home value is $443,700, and in Essex County it is $401,700, according to the study.

Passaic has the highest property tax burden as measured against income. Essex County has the second highest.

The full results can be seen here. As rated by tax as a percentage of income, the worst counties are as follows: Passaic (NJ), Essex (NJ), Nassau (NY), Union (NJ), Bergen (NJ), Hudson (NJ), Westchester (NY), Suffolk (NY), Hunterdon (NJ), and Rockland (NY) counties. All are located in either New York or New Jersey. Passaic had a rate of 8.2% of income going to property tax, while Rockland had 7.2% of income going to property tax.

That's on top of all the other taxes imposed at the state and local level.