WalletHub analyzed 300 U.S. cities of varying sizes across ten metrics, including real estate tax rate, cost per square foot, median home price, and median household income. Each metric was scored on a 100-point scale, with 100 indicating the most favorable conditions for home affordability. For this map, only cities with a population over 100,000 were considered.
Detroit leads the list, with a median price per square foot of around $87. The city has faced significant challenges over the decades, including financial crises and the decline of the auto industry, prompting many residents to leave.
Today, more than 22% of homes in Detroit are vacant, creating a strong buyer’s market. According to WalletHub, Detroit is also one of the top cities where buying a home offers greater long-term value than renting. The city was also considered the most affordable large American city in 2025, according to another study.
Also in the Rust Belt, Pittsburgh, PA, ranks as the second-most affordable city for homebuyers, with a median home price approximately 3.8 times higher than the median household income.
Like Detroit, Memphis, TN—ranked third—has also been highlighted as one of the most affordable large cities in the country for working families.
Ashome valueshave soared across the country,property tax billshave risen in lockstep. While many homeowners are feeling the pinch, seniors living on fixed incomes are often hit hardest by this growing burden. Many own homes that have appreciated significantly, locking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity. But accessing that equity is difficult, and holding on to it means keeping up withrising tax bills.
To ease the strain, 16 states and the District of Columbia offer property tax exemptions for qualifying seniors. Another 17 states provide tax credits, and five have implemented property tax freezes to stabilize costs year to year. Still, many of these policies haven’t kept pace with rapid home price growth, providing comparatively small relief.
Now, seven more states are weighing new legislation aimed at protecting seniors from being taxed out of the homes they’ve spent decades paying off.
Exemptions vs. freezes vs. credits
There offer several forms of property tax relief, with the most common being exemptions, freezes, and tax credits. All aim to lower the property tax burden, but they work in different ways:
Exemptions reduce the assessed value of your home, or, the portion that’s subject to taxation. By lowering the taxable value, your overall tax bill is reduced.
Property tax freezes lock in your current tax amount, preventing increases even if your home’s value goes up. This helps protect against rising property taxes and offers long-term predictability.
Tax credits provide a direct reduction in your tax bill. Rather than adjusting your home’s value, they subtract a set amount from the total you owe each year.
Qualifying for senior relief
While many states offer targeted relief for seniors and their property tax burdens, qualifying for that relief isn’t always as straightforward as meeting an age requirement. In many of the laws we reviewed, income requirements were also necessary to qualify for property tax exemptions, credits, and freezes.
Qualifications vary from state to state and sometimes year to year, so it’s essential to discuss them with your county assessor.
Navigating the nuances of property tax relief can be difficult, but it can be more than worth the hassle. A recent report by Realtor.com® found that as many as 40.5% of properties could be overpaying on their property taxes. A new tool makes it easier to protest your assessment by comparing your home's assessment value to similar homes, and providing a set of data on comparable properties that you can use as evidence in your appeal.
States that offer property tax exemptions to seniors
Alabama: Exempts seniors from the state portion of property taxes; county taxes may still apply.
Alaska: Exempts the first $150,000 of assessed home value for homeowners aged 65 and older.
Colorado: Exempts 50% of the first $200,000 in value of a senior’s primary residence.
District of Columbia: Reduces property tax by 50% for qualifying seniors.
Florida: Offers an exemption of up to $50,000 for homeowners aged 65 and older.
Georgia: Provides a $4,000 exemption from county taxes for qualifying seniors.
Indiana: Reduces the assessed value of a qualifying senior's home by $14,000.
Iowa: Exempts $6,500 of the taxable value for homeowners aged 65 and older.
Kentucky: Exempts $49,100 of assessed value for qualifying homeowners aged 65 or older.
Mississippi: Exempts $7,500 of assessed home value for homeowners aged 65 and up.
Nebraska: Offers property tax reductions for seniors on their primary residence.
New York: Exempts up to 50% of a home’s assessed value for qualifying seniors.
North Carolina: Exempts the greater of $25,000 or 50% of the home’s assessed value.
Ohio: Exempts $26,200 of assessed value for qualified senior homeowners.
South Carolina: Exempts the first $50,000 in fair market value for homeowners over age 65.
Texas: Requires school districts to offer an additional $10,000 homestead exemption for seniors. Local taxing units may offer an additional exemption of at least $3,000.
Washington: Offers three tiers of exemptions based on a senior’s combined disposable income.
States with property tax credits to seniors
Connecticut: Offers a credit up to $1,250 for married couples and $1,000 for single persons.
Delaware: Offers a tax credit for the portion of a senior’s property tax bill that goes toward school funding.
Kansas: Offers a credit for up to 75% of the property taxes on a principal residence.
Maine: Eligible taxpayers may receive a portion of the property tax or rent paid during the tax year as a credit, regardless of whether they owe state income tax.
Massachusetts: Offers a maximum senior property tax credit of $2,730 for tax year 2024.
Michigan: Seniors can receive a credit of up to $1,200, based on the amount property taxes exceed 3.5% of their income.
Missouri: Provides a credit of up to $750 for renters and $1,100 for homeowners who occupy their property.
Montana: Seniors over 62 may qualify for a credit up to $1,150, even with no income.
New Jersey: The Stay NJ program reimburses 50% of property tax bills, with a cap of $6,500 in 2024.
New Mexico: Offers a credit of up to $250 (or $125 for married individuals filing separately).
North Dakota: Offers homestead property tax credits and renters’ credits for eligible residents.
Pennsylvania: Provides rebates from $380 to $1,000 to eligible seniors and disabled adults.
South Dakota: Offers eligible seniors and disabled residents a yearly refund of sales or property taxes.
Tennessee: The state reimburses a portion or all of property taxes for eligible homeowners. This is a credit, not an exemption.
Utah: The maximum property tax credit for renters is $1,259 under the Circuit Breaker program.
West Virginia: Offers a property tax credit up to a maximum of $1,000.
Wisconsin: Provides both homestead and school property tax credits for eligible seniors.
States with property tax freezes to seniors
Arizona: Freezes the property value of a primary residence for qualifying seniors, preventing increases in assessed value.
Arkansas: Freezes the assessed value of a homestead for eligible seniors to prevent future increases in property taxes.
Louisiana: Freezes property tax assessments for eligible seniors and exempts the first $75,000 of a home’s value from property taxes.
Oklahoma: The Senior Valuation Limitation freezes the fair cash value of a qualifying homestead for seniors, stabilizing property tax bills.
Idaho: Offers a property tax reduction between $250 and $1,500 for eligible homeowners on their home and up to 1 acre of land.
What states are trying to pass more exemptions for seniors?
For the first time since January 2023, US Home Prices, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller's 20-City Composite Index, fell (-0.12% MoM) in March (the latest data available). That dragged the YoY change in home price down to +4.07%, the lowest since August 2023
Source: Bloomberg
Tampa prices continue to tumble...
Source: Bloomberg
Arguably, (lagged) mortgage rates dipped during that period (positive short-term for the highly smoothed and lagged Case Shiller series), but as is clear, the next couple of months do not bode well...
Source: Bloomberg
However, home price appreciation does seem to track very closely with bank reserves at The Fed (6mo lag), which implies prices are going continue to lag for the next couple of months before re-accelerating once again...
Source: Bloomberg
So 100bps of rate-cuts prompted a re-acceleration in home prices... and now prices are tumbling again as you pause... Well played Fed!!
Thousands of rent-stabilized apartments in NYC are under threat of foreclosure as an increasing number of landlords stop paying their mortgages — making the coveted units even more scarce, insiders told The Post.
Buildings with a cumulative 176 rent-stabilized units have been foreclosed upon since 2022 – a figure that’s been doubling every year on average — with another 2,093 stabilized units have been put on notice by banks in April that landlords are defaulting on their mortgages, according to an analysis by PropertyShark data.
“It’s a bloodbath,” said Sarah Saltzberg, co-owner of Bohemia Realty Group, who rents pre-war units in upper Manhattan.
Sarah Salzberg says many rent-controlled property owners are losing money — not making it.Bohemia Realty Group
Owners lose money on stabilized units, so they leave them empty and skip the listing — or walk away entirely, leading to foreclosures, Saltzberg said.
“The owners are under water — that’s why in the past year it keeps happening over and over,” she said.
Many of the pre-1974 buildings — the year NYC established the rent stabilization system — desperately need repairs, but owners have stopped investing due to 2019 laws capping rent hikes after improvements at 2% and banning landlords from raising rents by up to 20% upon vacancy — changes that cut property values. Rising interest rates over the past three years also slowed renovations to a crawl.
Tenant advocacy groups and Democratic state legislators lobbied hard for these changes, considered the biggest overhaul of New York’s rent laws in a generation — arguing they were necessary to protect tenants against rent hikes and evictions.
Coco Portofe’s landlord has bailed on mortgage payments since January 2024, but she still has to pay rent every month.Helayne Seidman
“A lot of us might end up displaced — a new owner can come in and kick us all out,” said Coco Portofe, 34, whose East Village rent-stabilized building is the subject of ongoing court proceedings.
If a landlord defaults, a new owner has to keep rent-stabilized units stabilized and keep rent the same.
But the issue is when no one wants to buy the foreclosed property because the rent-stabilized units make it so financially unattractive, insiders told The Post.
In that case, the building’s residents could face eviction.
“There are situations where given the rent-stabilized nature of the tenancy, any purchase price over $1 would be ludicrous,” said foreclosure attorney Alexander Paykin.
A foreclosure notice has been put on the door at 510 and 514 East 12th Street, which both have the same owner.Helayne Seidman
Experts point to a recent case in March, when mortgage lender Santander Bank refused to even take the keys of a foreclosed rent-stabilized building in Harlem, as indicative of what could come. Some fear a repeat of the 1970s, when New York landlords simply walked away from decaying buildings that were no longer profitable to rent out.
Portofe’s landlord – private equity firm Madison Capital Realty — is accused by its lender, the Community Preservation Corp., of not making mortgage payments on her building since January 2024, court records show.
“I have to pay rent on time, and they are not upholding their part of the bargain,” said Portofe, who pays $2,200 a month for a rent-stabilized one bedroom on East 12th Street.
Market rate for one bedroom in her nabe rent for an average of $3,800, according to StreetEasy.
Adam Tantleff, Brian Shatz and Josh Zegen are the managing principals of Madison Realty — Portofe’s landlord.Madison Realty Capital
A total of 209 rent-stabilized apartments across 15 East Village buildings are part of the lawsuit.
Residential portfolio acquired by Madison acquired those units in 2021 as part of a residential portfolio for $153 million — a small part of the real estate investment firm’s $22 billion assets under management.
Madison Capital is accused of “intentional misconduct” and “gross negligence for “wrongfully” collecting rent and failing to turn over that money to its lender — to whom it’s said to owe more than $76 million in mortgage payments, interest and late fees.
Madison Realty bailed on mortgage payments on a set of 15 rent-stabilized buildings in the East Village, according to court documents.Helayne Seidman
Madison Realty Capital didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment.
According to data from the Rent Guidelines Board — 10% of the 643,140 pre-1974 rent-stabilized apartments in New York City — an estimated 64,314 units – are losing money, a figured that’s doubled since 2019 and is only expected to grow.
Before the rental laws were overhauled, rent-stabilized buildings were a lot more profitable.
Willis is with NYU’S Furman Center, who works to advance knowledge and debate on housing in the city.NYU Furman Center
“The extent of this rent shortfall will grow over time, risking the long-term sustainability of these key segments of the city’s affordable housing stock,” said Mark A. Willis, a senior policy fellow at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
And about to make matters even worse is a tax-lien sale the city Department of Finance is planning to hold on June 3 — the first since the pandemic — to sell the debt of landlords who’ve been delaying property tax, water or sewer payments to try to stay afloat.
Whoever buys up that debt could foreclose on the properties to collect what’s owed.
