Property Taxes in Connecticut
Connecticut's property tax is the state's real, defining and currently worsening cost-of-living issue -- a statewide effective rate of 1.81% (WalletHub, February 2026), the 3rd-highest in the nation, set town-by-town with a real, disclosed roughly 6x spread between the state's highest- and lowest-taxed towns.
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Learn more3rd-highest in the nation, and not improving
WalletHub's own directly-sourced February 2026 study places Connecticut's statewide effective real-estate tax rate at 1.81%, the 3rd-highest in the nation, behind only New Jersey and Illinois -- essentially unchanged from WalletHub's own 1.92% figure a year earlier (February 2025), consistent with Connecticut's multi-year run in the nation's bottom three. A real, disclosed cross-source spread exists (a Tax Foundation-cited figure as low as 1.54%, other 2026 aggregators citing figures as high as 2.07%-2.14% depending on methodology), but 1.81% is this record's most defensible, directly-attributable anchor.
A real, roughly 6x spread between towns
Far more consequential for any specific mover than the statewide average: real, substantial town-to-town mill-rate variation. This pass's own 2025-26 research found Hartford's mill rate at a real 68.95 (the state's highest), Waterbury near 60, and Bridgeport near 53.99, against wealthy Fairfield County towns like Greenwich (~11) and Darien (~14) -- a real, disclosed roughly 6x spread reflecting dramatic differences in per-resident property wealth rather than one uniform statewide burden.
How Connecticut assesses and taxes property
Connecticut assesses property at 70% of fair market value, and each of the state's 169 towns independently sets its own mill rate (dollars of tax per $1,000 of assessed value) -- meaning there is no single statewide property tax rate to budget against. A prospective mover must confirm a specific target town's current mill rate directly rather than relying on any statewide figure alone.
Property tax is part of a genuinely two-sided tax story
Connecticut's real, disclosed property tax burden sits alongside a genuinely simpler income and sales tax picture: a graduated income tax topping out at 6.99%, and a flat 6.35% sales tax with zero local add-ons anywhere in the state. See the income-taxes and sales-tax topics for the fuller detail on how Connecticut's overall tax burden compares.
Key takeaways
- Connecticut's statewide effective property tax rate is 1.81% (WalletHub, February 2026), the 3rd-highest in the nation, behind only New Jersey and Illinois.
- Town-to-town mill rates vary enormously -- Hartford's 68.95 (the state's highest) versus Greenwich's roughly 11, a real, disclosed roughly 6x spread.
- Connecticut assesses property at 70% of fair market value, and each of the state's 169 towns independently sets its own mill rate.
- Confirm your specific target town's current mill rate directly -- there is no single statewide property tax rate that applies uniformly.
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