Property Tax Delinquency Rates Fell in 2021

CoreLogic has released its latest Real Estate Property Tax Delinquency Report, which analyzes real estate property tax delinquency changes on a state levels and nationally. The latest data shows that delinquency rates dropped 0.4% to 5.9%. 

The report, which measures national and state property taxes delinquency rate percentages ranging from 2011-2021. It examines changes to the tax payment status for loans requiring payment by the homeowner to appropriate taxing authorities. 

“Homeowners in financial distress are more likely to be late on their property tax payment,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic chief economist. “During the past decade, 2011 had the highest annual average unemployment and tax delinquency rates. Unemployment was at its lowest in 2018 and 2019, the two years with the lowest delinquency rates. The rise in delinquency in 2020 and decline during 2021 reflects the large job loss during the early months of the pandemic and substantial job gain of last year.” 

Top level takeaways from the report are: 

• The top five states with the highest average property tax delinquency rates in 2021 include: Mississippi (15.6%), Delaware (14.5%), Virginia (10.5%), New Jersey/Massachusetts (tie) (10.2%) and Washington, D.C. (10.1%). 
• The top five states with the lowest average property tax delinquency rates in 2021 include: North Dakota (1.2%), Minnesota (1.3%), Wisconsin (1.5), Illinois (1.8%) and Utah (2.2%). 
• North Dakota had the lowest percentage of property tax delinquencies at 1.2%. For the same year, Mississippi had the highest with a rate of 15.6%. The 14.4% gap in between the lowest and highest rates in 2021 is slightly less at 13.9% for period spanning 2011 through 2021. Over that time, Minnesota had the lowest average property tax delinquency percentage of 2.0% while Mississippi had the highest rate of 15.9%.