Why are Residential Property Tax Rates Regressive?

Among single-family homes that enjoy the same set of property tax-funded amenities and pay the same statutory property tax rate, owners of cheap houses pay almost 50% higher effective tax rates than owners of expensive houses. This pattern appears throughout the United States and is caused by systematic assessment regressivity -- cheap houses are over-appraised relative to expensive houses. Fourteen percent of the observed regressivity can be explained by tax assessors' flawed valuation methods that ignore variation in priced house and neighborhood characteristics. Infrequent reappraisal can explain less than 10% of the regressivity. Data from Cook County suggests that heterogeneous appeals behaviors and outcomes do not contribute. Taken at face value, correcting assessment regressivity would increase poor homeowners' net worth by almost 15%