Property Taxes Are Rising Faster Than Inflation: What It Means for Maryland Homeowners in 2026
Property taxes are climbing faster than the cost of everything else. The average U.S. property tax bill rose to $4,427 in 2025, up 3.7% year-over-year, while inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index rose only 2.7%, according to ATTOM’s 2025 Property Tax Analysis. Maryland homeowners felt it more than most: the state saw an 11.6% jump in average property tax bills, one of the steepest increases in the country, even as home values nationally slipped slightly.
Table of Contents
- The National Numbers: Taxes Up, Home Values Down
- Why Maryland Is Feeling It More Than Most States
- Why This Is Happening Even as Home Values Cool
- Can You Appeal Your Property Tax Assessment?
- What Rising Taxes Mean If You’re Considering Selling
- The Math of Waiting to Sell
- How a Cash Sale Removes the Tax-Timing Question
- FAQ
The National Numbers: Taxes Up, Home Values Down
According to ATTOM’s 2025 Property Tax Analysis, homeowners across more than 89.6 million single-family homes paid a combined $396.8 billion in property taxes in 2025, up 3.7% from 2024. The average single-family home generated a $4,427 tax bill, a 3% increase over the prior year.
What makes this notable: the average estimated home value actually declined 1.7% over the same period, from $502,831 to $494,231. Despite that dip, the national effective tax rate climbed to 0.9%, up from 0.86% in 2024 and the highest level since 2020. As ATTOM CEO Rob Barber put it, tax bills in 2025 reflected “more than just home values” — local government costs and shifting tax policy pushed bills up even as the underlying asset lost a little value.
Why Maryland Is Feeling It More Than Most States
Maryland homeowners are seeing this trend more acutely than the national average. According to CBS News reporting on ATTOM’s data, Maryland saw an 11.6% year-over-year jump in average property tax bills — more than triple the 3.7% national increase, and among the largest state-level jumps reported. Neighboring Delaware, also in Executive Pro Home Buyers’ service area, saw an even steeper 18% increase.
Regionally, this fits a broader pattern: the Northeast and Midwest continue to carry the heaviest property tax burdens nationally, driven by a combination of higher local government spending and, in some states, older assessment systems that periodically catch up all at once rather than adjusting gradually.
Why This Is Happening Even as Home Values Cool
A few structural factors explain why tax bills keep climbing even when home values soften:
- Local government budgets don’t shrink when home values dip. Schools, police, fire departments, and infrastructure costs are largely fixed or growing, and property taxes fund roughly 70 cents of every dollar in local tax collections, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
- Assessment cycles lag the market. Many jurisdictions reassess property values on a multi-year cycle, so a bill in 2025 or 2026 may reflect a valuation from a prior, higher-value year even as current market prices have cooled.
- Millage and levy rates can rise independently of value. Local governments can raise the tax rate itself to cover budget gaps, which is exactly what’s driving the “effective tax rate” (taxes as a percentage of value) higher even as raw home values fall.
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Can You Appeal Your Property Tax Assessment?
Yes, and it’s underused. According to the National Taxpayers Union, the majority of properly prepared property tax appeals win at least a partial reduction — yet fewer than 5% of homeowners ever file one.
If your assessed value seems out of line with what similar homes in your area have actually sold for, it’s worth requesting your assessment file from your local tax office and comparing it against recent comparable sales. Most Maryland counties have a formal appeal window and process; missing the deadline generally means waiting for the next assessment cycle.
What Rising Taxes Mean If You’re Considering Selling
If you’re already weighing whether to sell, rising property taxes add a concrete number to that decision:
- Your carrying cost is going up regardless of what you decide. Even if you’re not selling this year, next year’s bill is more likely to rise than fall given the current trend.
- Buyers factor property taxes into affordability. A higher tax bill can modestly affect what buyers are willing to offer, particularly for buyers calculating a strict monthly payment ceiling.
- This compounds with other holding costs — insurance, maintenance, and, if applicable, a mortgage — that are also trending upward in many markets.
None of this means you should rush a decision, but it’s a real, quantifiable factor worth including if you’re doing the math on selling now versus later.
The Math of Waiting to Sell
Consider a Maryland home with a $4,000 annual property tax bill. If Maryland’s 11.6% year-over-year increase pattern continues even partially, that bill could realistically climb several hundred dollars a year for the next few years. Multiply that by however many years you might otherwise wait to sell, and it becomes a real, if often overlooked, cost of delaying a decision — on top of ongoing insurance and maintenance costs that tend to move in the same direction.
This is particularly relevant for owners of vacant, inherited, or otherwise non-primary-residence properties, where there’s no offsetting benefit (like living in the home) to justify carrying a rising tax bill indefinitely.
How a Cash Sale Removes the Tax-Timing Question
For homeowners who’ve concluded that carrying costs — including rising property taxes — no longer make sense to keep absorbing, a direct cash sale offers a clean way to stop the clock:
- A fast, defined closing date means you’re not gambling on next year’s tax bill while you wait to list, show, and close a traditional sale.
- No repairs required, so you’re not investing more money into a property you’re trying to exit.
- One firm number, so you know exactly what you’re walking away with rather than estimating against a moving cost baseline.
Weighing a Sale With Rising Costs in Mind?
If you’re ready to sell my home for cash rather than keep absorbing rising taxes and carrying costs, Executive Pro Home Buyers can help. We buy homes as-is, across all nine of our service states — Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Arizona, and Pennsylvania — with a fair, no-obligation cash offer, often within 24–48 hours. If you’d rather sell my home fast for cash than wait out another assessment cycle, reach out directly.
Get My Cash Offer → | Call 443-830-3677
Executive Pro Home Buyers is also online at executiveprohomebuyers.com — same company, same team, same no-obligation cash offer process.
Frequently Asked Questions About Rising Property Taxes
How much did the average property tax bill increase in 2025? The national average rose 3.7% to $4,427, according to ATTOM’s 2025 Property Tax Analysis, outpacing the 2.7% rise in the Consumer Price Index over the same period.
Why did Maryland’s property taxes rise more than the national average? Maryland saw an 11.6% year-over-year increase in average property tax bills, according to CBS News reporting on ATTOM data, more than triple the national increase. Neighboring Delaware saw an even larger 18% jump.
Can property taxes rise even if my home’s value goes down? Yes. Nationally, average home values fell 1.7% in 2025 while the effective tax rate still rose to 0.9%, the highest since 2020. Local government budgets, assessment cycle lags, and rate changes can all push bills up independent of your home’s market value.
Can I appeal my property tax assessment? Yes. Most jurisdictions, including Maryland counties, have a formal appeal process and window. The National Taxpayers Union reports most well-prepared appeals win at least a partial reduction, though fewer than 5% of homeowners file one.
Does selling my house for cash help me avoid rising property taxes? Selling ends your ongoing property tax liability on that home as of closing, regardless of how you sell. A cash sale simply lets you close faster and more predictably, so you’re not absorbing another year (or more) of rising bills while a traditional sale plays out.
This article provides general information and is not tax or legal advice. For guidance on your specific assessment or appeal, consult your local tax assessor’s office or a licensed tax professional.