Which County in the Twin Cities Has the Highest Property Taxes?

Highway sign showing Minneapolis/St. Paul exit

by John Egan
January 04, 2017

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If you’re hunting for a home in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, metro area and you’re looking for low property tax bills, you might want to steer clear of the region’s two Wisconsin counties.

A LawnStarter review of U.S. Census Bureau data shows homeowners in Wisconsin’s Pierce and St. Croix counties pay the highest median property tax bills in the Twin Cities region. The median bill for Pierce County homeowners is $3,683; in St. Croix County, it’s $3,253. Those figures are 2011-15 estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey; the numbers were released in December 2016.

Eric Myers, government affairs director for the Saint Paul Area Association of Realtors, says that in general, Wisconsin relies more on property taxes than Minnesota does, whereas Minnesota has a higher sales tax rate than Wisconsin does. In the cases of Pierce and St. Croix counties, the residential tax burden is comparatively higher because they have less of a commercial real estate tax base than their Minnesota neighbors typically do, according to Myers.

As for the lowest property tax bills for Twin Cities homeowners, Sibley County is the winner. There, the median property tax bill is $1,606, according to our review of Census Bureau data. It’s worth noting that Sibley County, with a population of almost 15,000, also has the lowest median home value in the region: $131,300.

However high or low a county’s property taxes are, Minneapolis-St. Paul is expected to be a big draw for a key segment of homebuyers in 2017 -- millennials. Realtor.com predicts that in 2017, Minneapolis-St. Paul along with Columbus, OH; Des Moines, IA; Madison, WI; and Omaha, NE, will beat national averages in 2017 for the share of millennials buying homes.

“It’s easier for millennials to buy in more affordable markets like in the Midwest,” says Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com. “We’re also seeing large numbers of millennials buying in Midwestern markets with or near big universities. So part of this is an effect of recent graduates with good jobs being able to settle down in these more affordable markets.”

If you’re a millennial -- or anyone else -- searching for a home in Minneapolis-St. Paul, check out the graphic below for county-by-county statistics on property tax bills, median household income and median home values.

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Top Photo: Recycle Nation

Which County in the Twin Cities Has the Highest Property Taxes?

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