The results of a new study published by Market Watch reveal that Alabama has the second lowest property tax burden in the United States. The state with the highest property tax burden is New Jersey, and the only state with a lower burden than Alabama is Hawaii.
According to the statistics provided by Attom Data, the average 2016 property tax bill in Alabama was $776. A resident in New Jersey pays that much almost every month, for a total average annual bill of $8,477.
Daren Blomquist, vice president with Attom Data, told Market Watch that states with higher property tax burdens have seen far slower recoveries in their housing markets since the financial crisis. According to the data, housing prices have risen 45 percent nationwide over the past five years. But in high-tax New Jersey, they have only risen five percent over that same period. Blomquist said that the tax policies in southern states like Alabama are drawing in more buyers and forcing home prices up.
Blomquist’s assumption is backed up by a 2016 study from United Van Lines, which showed that the states with the most inbound retiree movers are generally low property tax states in the south and west.
According to John Mousseau, director of fixed income for Cumberland Advisors, the shift in location preferences is one of simple economics. “New Jersey’s been on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve for a least a half-dozen years,” he told Market Watch.
The Laffer Curve, named after economist Arthur Laffer, explains the inverse relationship between rising tax rates and revenue. Laffer’s theory asserts that after a certain point, the closer a tax rate moves to 100 percent, the closer government revenue moves to zero.
Although Alabama has a low property tax impact, it is still among the worst in the nation for effective sales tax rates.
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