2026 Property Tax Delinquency Report

The Cotality™ Real Estate Property Tax Delinquency Report analyzes data for mortgages requiring homeowners to pay real estate taxes directly to taxing authorities. From a dataset representing approximately 15 million tax reporting events and 8 million mortgages solely of non-escrowed loans, state and national data on the average property tax delinquency rates are shown in this study.

For the years spanning 2012 through 2026 YTD, the average national property tax delinquency rate has experienced significant volatility. Starting at a high of 8.2% in 2012, that rate steadily declined to a low of 4.3% in 2019. YTD in 2026 we see a rate of 5.2%, but this value still sits under the long-term average of 5.4% for the 2012 to 2025 period.

Report highlights

• The average national property tax delinquency rate over the 2012–2025 YTD period was 5.4%. YTD 2026 the rate is in an uptrend to 5.2%, but is still sitting below the long-term average.
• Tax Lien states have a higher average property tax delinquency (6.1%) than Tax Deed states (4.5%).
• Property tax delinquency by state correlates very strongly with the prior year’s rate (correlation = 0.90) and moderately with frequency of HOA liens (correlation = 0.56) and 90 day mortgage delinquency (correlation = 0.54).

Highest Delinquency States

Lowest Delinquency States

Explaining the difference between high and low delinquency states