Tools / 01

Is Your Property
Tax Bill Wrong?

Your property tax bill starts with the county's guess at what your building is worth. Counties guess tens of thousands of buildings at a time, with a formula. Formulas miss. I built a system that reads the public records and finds the buildings they got wrong. Here's what it found.

0

commercial buildings are valued at double what similar buildings nearby are valued at, or more. Their owners likely overpay property tax every single year, across the 187 counties read so far. Most have no idea, and almost none ever challenge the bill.

953,238
buildings checked, from public county records
1 in 10
looks overvalued vs similar buildings nearby
$6.8B
of tax per year riding on those gaps
32
counties can still challenge this year's bill right now

Where I've looked so far

Darker green means more buildings that look overvalued. Tap a state to see its counties. Gray states are next.

AK: queuedAKME: queuedMEVT: 492 flagged across 1 countyVTNH: queuedNHWA: 1,184 flagged across 4 countiesWAID: 623 flagged across 2 countiesIDMT: 222 flagged across 3 countiesMTND: queuedNDMN: 600 flagged across 3 countiesMNIL: 899 flagged across 4 countiesILWI: 3,505 flagged across 10 countiesWIMI: 2,223 flagged across 6 countiesMINY: 3,136 flagged across 5 countiesNYMA: 1,742 flagged across 6 countiesMARI: queuedRIOR: queuedORNV: 244 flagged across 1 countyNVWY: queuedWYSD: 703 flagged across 1 countySDIA: 522 flagged across 3 countiesIAIN: 1,820 flagged across 2 countiesINOH: 4,886 flagged across 7 countiesOHPA: 4,375 flagged across 18 countiesPANJ: 10,471 flagged across 21 countiesNJCT: 894 flagged across 4 countiesCTCA: 5,432 flagged across 6 countiesCAUT: 4,568 flagged across 5 countiesUTCO: 2,383 flagged across 4 countiesCONE: 1,198 flagged across 2 countiesNEMO: 788 flagged across 3 countiesMOKY: queuedKYWV: queuedWVVA: 848 flagged across 2 countiesVAMD: 1,849 flagged across 6 countiesMDDE: queuedDEAZ: 402 flagged across 2 countiesAZNM: 422 flagged across 1 countyNMKS: queuedKSAR: 288 flagged across 1 countyARTN: 4,525 flagged across 5 countiesTNNC: 4,786 flagged across 13 countiesNCSC: 3,763 flagged across 8 countiesSCDC: 672 flagged across 1 countyDCOK: queuedOKLA: queuedLAMS: 393 flagged across 3 countiesMSAL: 353 flagged across 2 countiesALGA: 5,343 flagged across 7 countiesGAHI: 164 flagged across 1 countyHITX: 15,411 flagged across 7 countiesTXFL: 2,428 flagged across 7 countiesFL

What about your county?

Showing the biggest counts first. 187 counties are searchable.

What being overvalued costs

A typical warehouse
$10.54 / sq ft
Its neighbors
about the same
The one that got missed
$32.16 / sq ft

Three warehouses on the same kind of street, doing the same kind of work. Two pay normal tax. One pays triple, roughly $65,000 a year extra, because the county's formula missed. That one is a real building in Greene County, Missouri. Its owner found out when I emailed him.

Check your property

Type your address. If your building looks overvalued next to similar buildings in your county, you'll see exactly where it stands. If it's not on the list, I'll check it by hand and email you what I find.

187 counties · 94,557 buildings indexed from public records.

Most buildings are valued fairly. These aren't.

953,238 commercial buildings checked. 803,229 are valued about right. Drag the line to explore the ones that aren't.

48,031buildings valued at 3x normal or more
~$3,254Mof tax per year riding on those gaps
1 in 20 of everything read
3x normal1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x803,229 valued fairlycounty value per sq ft vs what's typical for similar buildings, same county · heights on a square-root scale so the tail stays visible

Counts at 1.75x and above are real buildings from county records. The shape of the left hump is illustrative, its total is real. A high number is a reason to look, not proof of an error, which is exactly why the look should be free.

Real buildings, anonymized

Apartments · Lexington County, SC
5.85x~$418,000/yr
Industrial · Flathead County, MT
5.7x~$108,000/yr
Apartments · Washington County, UT
5.56x~$456,000/yr
Apartments · Beaufort County, SC
5.49x~$240,000/yr
Warehouse · Niagara County, NY
5.4x~$70,000/yr
Apartments · Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT
5.36x~$260,000/yr

Method, honestly

Every commercial building compared to the typical value per square foot of similar buildings in the same county, straight from the county's own public records. 'Looks overvalued' means valued at double that norm or more. Dollar figures assume a conservative 1.5% effective tax rate on the excess. A screen, not an appraisal. Some gaps have good explanations. A renovation, a recent sale, a better building. The screen's job is to find the parcels worth a closer look, not to promise every flag is an error. Dataset generated 2026-07-07 from county public records.

Own commercial property and want to know where you sit against your county's data? Send me the address and I'll run it. Free, same day, and if your assessment is fair I'll tell you that.

    Is Your Property Tax Bill Wrong? — Greg Miller