New Jersey #1!

From Reuters:

NY, NJ pay highest property taxes: study

New Jersey and New York state residents paid the highest property taxes in the country in 2006, as much as $6,500 more than the national median, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Hunterdon County, New Jersey, about a 55-mile (89-km) drive from New York City, replaced Westchester County, New York, on top of the list of 10 counties with the highest median real estate taxes, the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group, said in the report.

Median real estate taxes for Hunterdon County totaled $7,999, followed by the $7,706 bill paid by homeowners in Nassau County, Long Island’s western half.

Third on the list was Westchester County, which is just north of New York City. Its residents paid $7,626, according to the report by the Washington, D.C.-based group.

Nationally, the median homeowner property tax was $1,541.

In New Jersey, the median value of a home was $366,600. New York’s median home value was $303,400.

By this measure, both states were far eclipsed by California, whose median home value was $535,700, the nation’s highest. However, in California the median property tax was just $2,510.

All of the other seven counties with highest median real estate taxes were also either in New York or New Jersey.