Key takeaways Property taxes are an important part of your budget and account for a large portion of homeowner costs. State laws and local municipalities assess property to determine its tax burden, usually on an annual basis. Exemptions and assessment appeals may be useful if you need to reduce your property tax burden. All homeowners must account for regular expenses beyond their mortgage payments, and one of the most common is property taxes . Property taxes vary based on where you live and start with a different baseline in each state. Once you know your state’s property tax rate, you can dig deeper to learn about property tax specific to your locality. What are property taxes? Property taxes are levied based on the value of your home. These can be imposed by counties, municipalities, townships, school districts or special districts (i.e., independent government units created for a limited, specific purpose).…