How Property Tax Works Across Our 7 Metro Areas
Every state on this list assesses property tax on a different basis, so this page doesn't rank the metros by who pays more — it lays out, state by state, how each one actually calculates a tax bill.
Why this page doesn't rank the metros
Every state on this list assesses property tax on a genuinely different basis, so a single ranked list of "who pays more" would compare numbers that aren't measuring the same thing. Georgia taxes 40% of a home's market value; Tennessee taxes 25% for residential property; Texas taxes the full appraised value with no assessment-ratio discount at all, offset by a large homestead exemption and an annual appraisal cap; North Carolina taxes the full appraised value like Texas, while South Carolina — sharing the Charlotte metro with North Carolina — taxes owner-occupied homes at just 4% of value; Florida taxes "just value" (its term for market value) with its own assessment-growth cap for homesteaded property. Converting all of that into one ranked number would manufacture a comparison the underlying rules don't actually support. What follows instead is what's structurally true, state by state, listed alphabetically by metro since there's no ranking to sort by.
| Metro | State(s) | Assessment basis | Notable mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | Georgia | 40% of fair market value | 2024 floating homestead exemption, opt-in/out by county, school district & city |
| Austin | Texas | 100% of appraised value | $140,000 school-district homestead exemption; 10% annual appraisal cap |
| Charlotte | North Carolina & South Carolina | NC: 100% of value. SC: 4% of value (owner-occupied) / 6% (other) | Bi-state metro — which side of the state line an address sits on changes the assessment ratio entirely |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | Texas | 100% of appraised value | Same $140,000 exemption & 10% cap; MUD/PID special districts add rate layers in many suburbs |
| Houston | Texas | 100% of appraised value | Same $140,000 exemption & 10% cap |
| Jacksonville | Florida | 100% of "just value" (Florida's term for market value) | Save Our Homes: caps annual assessed-value growth at 3% or CPI, whichever is lower, for homesteaded property (10% cap for non-homestead) |
| Nashville | Tennessee | 25% of appraised value (residential) | Metro Nashville's Urban vs. General Services District rate split |
What "assessment basis" actually means
Your tax bill is always assessed value (not market value) multiplied by the combined rate set by whichever local governments tax that address — county, school district, and sometimes city, each set independently. The assessment basis is the step before that: what fraction of a home's value the state counts as taxable in the first place. A low assessment ratio and a high nominal rate can land on a similar bill to a high assessment ratio and a low rate — the ratio alone doesn't tell you what anyone actually pays, which is the core reason this page states the mechanism rather than a single dollar comparison.
Where to find real rates and exemptions
Each metro's own property tax guide has the current county-by-county (or, for Charlotte, county-and-state) rates, exemption programs, and filing details, researched and sourced individually: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Jacksonville, and Nashville. This page is the structural, cross-metro overview; those pages are where to go for a specific address.