Senior Property Tax Exemptions and Freezes by State (2026)

Updated September 2026 · every row read from that state's own revenue or assessment department

Property tax is the one big retirement bill that isn't federal. Social Security, Medicare and the IRS treat a 65-year-old in Ohio exactly like a 65-year-old in Oregon. Property tax doesn't. Cross a state line and the same person, the same income, the same house goes from a full exemption to nothing at all.

Nobody publishes this side by side, because no single agency owns it. Each state posts its own rules on its own site, and a good many of those sites are wrong about their own programs. So here are all 51 of them in one table, with the page each figure came from named underneath.

What are the four kinds of senior property tax relief?

Almost every program in the country is one of four things, and they're worth telling apart before you read the table, because two of them aren't discounts at all.

An exemption subtracts value from the taxable base. Mississippi takes the first $7,500 of assessed value off. South Carolina takes the first $50,000 of market value off. This is the one people picture.
A freeze locks something in place at the year you qualify. Read the fine print, because most freezes lock the assessed value, not the bill. If the millage rate goes up, your tax still goes up. Texas is the exception that freezes the actual school-tax dollar amount.
A deferral isn't relief. It's a loan. The state pays your bill, records a lien on your house, and charges interest until you sell or die. Oregon charges 6%, Washington 5%, Minnesota up to 5%. That can still be the right move for someone house-rich and cash-poor, but it isn't a discount and it comes out of what you leave behind.
A circuit-breaker or rebate pays you back once your tax passes some share of your income. Massachusetts refunds anything above 10% of income. These are usually claimed on a state income tax return rather than at the assessor, which is why so many people who qualify never claim them.

Sources for the figures in this list: Mississippi Department of Revenue, homestead exemption; South Carolina Department of Revenue, homestead exemption; Oregon Department of Revenue, Publication OR-PTD; Washington Department of Revenue, deferral for senior citizens; Minnesota Department of Revenue, property tax deferral for senior citizens; Massachusetts Department of Revenue, TIR 25-7.

One more distinction worth having in front of you: statewide versus local-option. A local-option program is written into state law but only exists where your county, city or town voted to adopt it. Half the disappointment in this subject comes from reading about a program that your county never adopted.

Senior property tax relief in all 50 states and DC

"Local" in the freeze and defer columns means state law permits it but your county or town decides. Income limits are the headline figure for the main program; several states run more than one, and the notes on each state's own page are where the second one lives.

State	Age	Freeze	Defer	Income limit	What a 65-year-old actually gets
Alabama	65	No	No	$12,000 federal taxable income for the total exemption (statutory, NOT…	At 65 you owe no state property tax; if federal taxable income is $12,000 or less, the entire bill is exempt, up to 160 acres.
Alaska	65	No	No	none	Every municipality must exempt the first $150,000 of assessed value once you turn 65. No income test anywhere in Alaska.
Arizona	65	Yes	Yes	$47,712 individual owner / $59,640 two or more owners (tax year 2026)	At 65 you can freeze your home's taxable valuation if income is under $47,712 (single, 2026). No senior exemption exists.
Arkansas	65	Yes	No	none	Turning 65 freezes your home's taxable assessed value with no income test, on top of the flat homestead credit of up to $600.
California	62	No	Yes	$55,181 total household income for calendar year 2024 (the 2025-26…	No senior exemption and no freeze. At 62 you can postpone the whole bill as a 5% lien if income is $55,181 or less.
Colorado	65	No	Yes	none for the Senior Property Tax Exemption (the separate PTC rebate is…	At 65, after ten straight years in the home, half the first $200,000 of value is exempt and the state pays it. No income test.
Connecticut	65	Local	Local	$46,300 unmarried / $56,500 married, 2025 total income counting all…	At 65 with 2025 income under $46,300 single or $56,500 married, the state credits up to $1,000 or $1,250 off your bill.
Delaware	65	No	No	none	At 65 the state covers 50% of your school property tax, capped at $500 a year, with no income test but a residency rule.
District of Columbia	65	No	Yes	$159,750 total household federal AGI for tax year 2025, measured on…	At 65 and under the income cap, DC halves your property tax bill and caps assessment growth at 2% a year.
Florida	65	No	Yes	$38,686 household adjusted gross income (2026)	Senior exemptions are local-option. Where adopted, 65+ with income under $38,686 gets $50,000 or more off the taxable value.
Georgia	62 (freeze + school exempt.) / 65 (county exempt.)	Yes	Yes	$10,000 prior-year income for the age-65 $4,000 county exemption and…	At 65 you get only a $4,000 county exemption if income is under $10,000; the real senior break is the 62+ base-year freeze.
Hawaii	varies by county (Honolulu tiers at 65)	Local	Local	set by county	Hawaii has no state property tax at all. Every senior break is set by the four counties.
Idaho	65	No	Yes	$39,130 (2025 income after deducting medical expenses) for the 2026…	A 65+ homeowner with income under $39,130 can cut the 2026 bill by $250 to $1,500; a separate deferral postpones the rest.
Illinois	65	Yes	Yes	$75,000 or less for taxable year 2026 (payable 2027), rising to $77,000…	At 65 Illinois gives a $5,000 to $8,000 exemption, plus an assessment freeze and a tax deferral if household income is $75,000 or less.
Indiana	65	Yes	No	Federal AGI not over $60,000 (single) or $70,000 (joint) for both the…	Indiana scrapped the Over-65 deduction. Since 2025 it is a flat $150 credit plus a 2% cap on annual increases, both at $60k/$70k AGI.
Iowa	65 (exempt.); 65 or 70 (credit)	No	No	None for the age-65 homestead exemption	A 65+ Iowa homeowner gets an extra $6,500 off taxable value on top of the new 10% homestead exemption, with no income test at all.
Kansas	55 (general refund) / 65 (SAFESR and SVR)	Yes	No	2025 household income: $43,389 or less for the Homestead Refund (K-40H)	Kansas pays cash refunds rather than exemptions: 75% of your tax back under $25,380 income, or the rise above your base year under $58,041.
Kentucky	65	No	No	none	Every Kentucky homeowner 65 or older subtracts $49,100 from the home's assessed value in 2025-2026, with no income test at all.
Louisiana	65	Yes	No	$100,000 AGI from the prior year's federal return, CPI-adjusted…	At 65 with AGI under $100,000, Louisiana locks your home's assessment at the year you qualify, and it holds until you sell.
Maine	65	No	Yes	Property Tax Fairness Credit, tax year 2025: total income under…	Maine's senior freeze is gone. At 65 you get a refundable income-tax credit of up to $2,000, or you defer the whole bill under $80,000 income.
Maryland	none statewide; 65 local-option senior credit and deferral	Local	Local	$60,000 combined gross household income (printed on the SDAT program…	Maryland's Homeowners' Tax Credit caps your bill by income, but it has no age test. Senior-only credits and deferral are county by county.
Massachusetts	65	No	Yes	$75,000 single / $94,000 head of household / $112,000 married filing…	At 65 Massachusetts refunds property tax above 10% of income, up to $2,820, and lets you defer the bill. Exemptions are a town-by-town vote.
Michigan	65	No	Yes	$71,500 total household resources (tax year 2025)	Michigan refunds property tax above about 3.2% of household income, up to $1,900, and at 65 it refunds a bigger share than for younger owners.
Minnesota	65 (deferral); no age test on the refund	No	Yes	$96,000 total household income for the Senior Citizens' Property Tax…	Minnesota's only senior-specific break is a deferral: you pay 3% of income and the state loans the rest as a lien at up to 5% interest.
Mississippi	65	No	No	none	At 65 Mississippi wipes out tax on the first $7,500 of assessed value, about $75,000 of home value, with no income test at all.
Missouri	62 (freeze) / 65 (credit)	Local	No	No income or home-value limit in the freeze statute	Missouri's senior freeze locks your bill at the year you enroll, but only if your county opted in. The income-based credit is separate.
Montana	62	No	No	gross household income less than $45,000	No senior exemption and no freeze. At 62 you claim a refundable income-tax credit up to $1,150 if household income is under $45,000.
Nebraska	65	No	No	Tax year 2026, based on 2025 income: 100% relief at $0 to $37,000	Nebraska fully exempts a chunk of your home's value at 65 if income is under about $37,000 single, phasing out to nothing near $54,300.
Nevada	any age	No	No	none	Nevada gives seniors nothing extra. A 65-year-old gets the same 3% yearly cap on a primary-residence tax bill as every other homeowner.
New Hampshire	65	No	Yes	Elderly exemption: each town sets the limit, which can never be below…	New Hampshire's elderly exemption exists only if your town voted for it. The state's own help is a 65+ deferral and an income-based rebate.
New Jersey	65	Yes	No	Senior Freeze: $168,268 (2024) AND $172,475 (2025)	At 65 you file one form and can stack three benefits: Senior Freeze, ANCHOR and Stay NJ.
New Mexico	65	Yes	No	$44,200 modified gross income for the prior taxable year (tax year 2026)	At 65 with modified gross income of $44,200 or less, your home's taxable value is frozen at its current assessed value.
New York	65	No	No	Enhanced STAR: $110,750 for 2026 benefits, based on 2024 income	Enhanced STAR cuts school tax at 65 if income is $110,750 or less; SCHE can cut assessed value up to 50% where the locality adopts it.
North Carolina	65	No	Yes	$38,800 for the 2026 tax year (prior-year income) for the Elderly or…	At 65 you pick ONE: exclude the greater of $25,000 or half the home's value, or cap the bill at 4-5% of income and defer the rest.
North Dakota	65	No	No	$70,000 for the calendar year preceding the assessment date, counting…	At 65 with income of $70,000 or less the state cuts your home's taxable value, 100% off up to $9,000 if income is under $40,000.
Ohio	65	No	No	$41,000 total income threshold certified for tax year 2026 (real…	At 65 Ohio shields $29,000 of the home's market value from property tax if household income is under the indexed limit.
Oklahoma	65	Yes	No	Senior Valuation Limitation: the HUD median income for YOUR county…	At 65 Oklahoma freezes the home's taxable value if income is under your county's HUD limit; under $30,000 adds a second homestead exemption.
Oregon	62	No	Yes	$70,000 household income for 2025, for the 2026 application	At 62 Oregon pays your property tax bill for you if income is $70,000 or less. It is a 6% loan secured by a lien on the home.
Pennsylvania	65	No	No	$48,110 household income for the 2025 claim year	At 65 with income of $48,110 or less you get a rebate check of up to $1,000, or as much as $1,500 with the supplement.
Rhode Island	65	No	No	$40,730 total 2025 household income	At 65 with 2025 household income of $40,730 or less you claim up to $700 back on Form RI-1040H with your state return.
South Carolina	65	No	No	none	Homeowners 65+ pay no property tax on the first $50,000 of the home's fair market value, with no income test at all.
South Dakota	65 freeze; 70 deferral	Yes	Yes	$56,595 single-member household / $66,885 multiple-member household…	At 65 your assessment freezes if income is under $56,595 single / $66,885 multi; at 70 you can defer the tax until you sell.
Tennessee	65	Local	Local	$38,470 maximum 2025 income of applicant, spouse, co-owner and resident…	A 65+ owner with 2025 income at or under $38,470 is reimbursed the tax on the first $33,600 of market value in 2026.
Texas	65	Yes	Yes	none	At 65 school taxes skip the first $200,000 of value ($140,000 general plus $60,000 age-65), and the school bill is then frozen.
Utah	67 credit; 75 deferral	No	Yes	$44,221 total 2025 household income from all sources (2026 claim year)	At 67 with 2025 household income under $44,221 you get up to $1,412 off the tax bill; at 75 you can defer instead.
Vermont	any age	No	No	$115,400 household income for tax year 2025 ($115,000 for 2024)	Vermont has no senior program at all. The income-based Property Tax Credit is the only tool, and age is irrelevant to it.
Virginia	65	No	Local	set locally by ordinance	Nothing statewide. Each county, city or town decides by ordinance whether a 65+ owner gets an exemption, a deferral, or nothing.
Washington	61 exempt.; 60 deferral	Yes	Yes	County-specific	At 61 your taxable value freezes and excess levies drop off if income is under your county's threshold; at 60 you can defer at 5%.
West Virginia	65	No	No	none for the $20,000 homestead exemption	The first $20,000 of assessed value is exempt at 65 with no income test; low-income seniors can add a refundable state tax credit.
Wisconsin	62 credit; 65 deferral loan	No	Yes	$24,680 household income for 2025 (homestead credit)	No senior exemption and no freeze. Just the Homestead Credit at 62 if 2025 household income is under $24,680, plus a 65+ deferral loan.
Wyoming	65 exempt.	No	Local	none for the 50% long-term exemption	At 65 with 25 years of Wyoming property tax paid, half your assessed value is exempt, but it sunsets July 1, 2027 and cannot stack.

Every row above was read from that state's revenue, taxation or assessment department, or from its statute where the department's site could not be reached. The full list of pages is at the foot of this article.

Which states give a senior break with no income test at all?

This is the question that decides whether the table is worth your time. In most states the senior break is really a low-income break wearing a senior label, and a retiree with a normal pension is over the line. In these, turning 65 is enough on its own.

State	Age	What you get with no income test
Alaska	65	Every municipality must exempt the first $150,000 of assessed value once you turn 65. No income test anywhere in Alaska.
Arkansas	65	Turning 65 freezes your home's taxable assessed value with no income test, on top of the flat homestead credit of up to $600.
Colorado	65	At 65, after ten straight years in the home, half the first $200,000 of value is exempt and the state pays it. No income test.
Delaware	65	At 65 the state covers 50% of your school property tax, capped at $500 a year, with no income test but a residency rule.
Iowa	65 (exempt.); 65 or 70 (credit)	A 65+ Iowa homeowner gets an extra $6,500 off taxable value on top of the new 10% homestead exemption, with no income test at all.
Kentucky	65	Every Kentucky homeowner 65 or older subtracts $49,100 from the home's assessed value in 2025-2026, with no income test at all.
Mississippi	65	At 65 Mississippi wipes out tax on the first $7,500 of assessed value, about $75,000 of home value, with no income test at all.
South Carolina	65	Homeowners 65+ pay no property tax on the first $50,000 of the home's fair market value, with no income test at all.
Texas	65	At 65 school taxes skip the first $200,000 of value ($140,000 general plus $60,000 age-65), and the school bill is then frozen.
West Virginia	65	The first $20,000 of assessed value is exempt at 65 with no income test; low-income seniors can add a refundable state tax credit.
Wyoming	65 exempt.	At 65 with 25 years of Wyoming property tax paid, half your assessed value is exempt, but it sunsets July 1, 2027 and cannot stack.

Read Colorado's row carefully, because it carries a different kind of test. There's no income limit, but you need ten consecutive years of owning and living in the same home, which rules out most people who moved in retirement. Wyoming's is the other trap: its 50% senior exemption and its 25% all-ages exemption can't be used together, and the senior one sunsets on July 1, 2027.

Sources: Colorado Division of Property Taxation, rebates, exemptions and deferrals; Wyoming Legislative Service Office HB0003 (2024) and the Wyoming Property Tax Division owner-occupied exemption page.

Is there an income limit for the senior property tax exemption?

In most states, yes, and the limits are all over the map. Alabama's total exemption stops at $12,000 of federal taxable income, a figure written into statute and never indexed, so in practice almost nobody clears it. New Jersey's Senior Freeze runs to about $172,000. Between those two sit forty-odd different answers.

Two things to watch. First, most states test household income counting everyone in the house, and many count money the IRS doesn't tax, including the whole Social Security benefit. Rhode Island adds back non-taxable Social Security, public assistance, child support and cash gifts. Second, most of these limits are indexed and move every year, so a figure you read in an old article is probably low.

Sources: Alabama Department of Revenue, homestead exemptions; New Jersey Division of Taxation, Senior Freeze eligibility; Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Form RI-1040H.

What is a senior freeze on property taxes?

A freeze holds one number still from the year you qualify. Thirteen states run one statewide, and five more let counties or towns adopt one.

The thing almost every article gets wrong: a freeze on assessed value is not a freeze on your bill. Arkansas, New Mexico, Illinois, Arizona and Oklahoma all freeze the valuation. If your town raises its rate, your tax rises anyway. Illinois says so directly. Texas is the one that freezes what you actually pay, and even there it's only the school-tax portion, and it's a separate instrument from the exemption. Kansas has a program that reads like a freeze and isn't: it refunds the increase over your base year, which means you still pay the whole bill first and wait for the money.

Sources: Illinois Department of Revenue, property tax relief; Arkansas Assessment Coordination Division; New Mexico Property Tax Division Order 25-44; Arizona Department of Revenue, senior valuation protection; Oklahoma Tax Commission Form 994; Texas Comptroller, property tax exemptions and Form 50-311; Kansas Department of Revenue, homestead refund programs.

Which states have nothing for seniors?

Four answers here, and they're different from each other.

Nevada has no age-based property tax exemption anywhere in its statute. A 65-year-old gets the same 3% annual cap on a primary residence as everyone else. Nevada's own tax department FAQ still lists "senior citizen tax assistance" as available; that program is gone from the law.
Vermont has one tool, an income-based credit, and age is not a criterion at any point in it.
Virginia has nothing statewide. Its law says a locality "may, by ordinance" offer an exemption or a deferral, and sets no amount and no income limit. Any Virginia figure you see quoted belongs to one county.
Hawaii has no state property tax at all. All four counties run their own, and Honolulu's 65+ home exemption rises from $160,000 to $180,000 on July 1, 2027.

California is nearly a fifth. It has no senior exemption and no senior freeze; a 65-year-old gets nothing subtracted from their base. What it has is postponement at 62 as a 5% lien with limited funds, and Proposition 19 portability at 55.

Sources: Nevada Legislature, NRS chapter 361; Vermont Department of Taxes, property tax credit; Code of Virginia 58.1-3210; Hawaii Department of Taxation, county real property tax; California State Controller, 2025-26 Property Tax Postponement package.

Does it always start at 65?

No, and assuming it does costs people years of relief. Kansas opens its general homestead refund at 55. Washington's exemption starts at 61 and its deferral at 60. California, Oregon, Montana, Wisconsin, Missouri and Georgia all have something at 62. Going the other way, Utah's credit doesn't start until 67 and its deferral until 75, and Arizona's deferral until 70.

If you're in your early sixties and you've been waiting for 65, check your state now.

Sources: Kansas Department of Revenue; Washington Department of Revenue exemption and deferral brochures; Utah State Tax Commission Form TC-90H and Publication 36; Arizona Revised Statutes 42-17302. Each state's page is linked in full below.

What most published state-by-state lists get wrong

Gathering this turned up a set of errors that are repeated almost everywhere, including on some of the government pages themselves.

Indiana's over-65 deduction no longer exists. A 2025 law repealed it and replaced it with a flat credit of up to $150. Guides still print the old $14,000 deduction and its $240,000 value cap. Indiana's real tool now is a credit that holds the annual increase to 2%.
Maine's senior freeze was repealed in 2023 after running for a single year. It's still written about as if it were live.
The Texas Comptroller serves its own stale numbers. Its live exemptions page correctly shows $140,000 plus $60,000 at 65, the amounts voters approved in November 2025. A PDF on the same site still shows $40,000 and $10,000.
Utah moved its credit age to 67. The current form says so. Nearly every secondary guide still says 66.
Florida's senior exemption isn't statewide. Both versions need a county or city ordinance. Its deferral, which almost nobody writes about, is statewide and unusually generous.
Ohio's own certification mixes two tax years in a single paragraph, and its older FAQ pages still say the exemption applies regardless of income, which stopped being true in 2014.
Oklahoma publishes no statewide freeze income figure at all, because it's set per county from HUD medians. The numbers circulating online come from nowhere official.
Wisconsin's deferral is effectively dead. Its $20,000 income cap was set in 1986 and never indexed. Eight households in the state used it in 2021-22.

Sources: Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, 2025 legislation memorandum; Maine Revenue Services, Schedule PTFC; Texas Comptroller, property tax exemptions; Utah State Tax Commission Form TC-90H (rev. 4/26); Florida Department of Revenue, additional homestead exemptions for persons 65 and older; Ohio Department of Taxation journal entry 25-09-0346; Oklahoma Tax Commission Form 994; Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau informational paper 26.

What to do this week

Find your state's row above and open the source link at the foot of this page. That's the page that governs, not this one.
Check the deadline before anything else. They're early and they're unforgiving: March 1 in Florida, March 15 in Oklahoma, April 1 in Georgia and South Dakota, April 15 in Idaho and Oregon, June 1 in North Carolina and Iowa, July 15 in Colorado, December 1 in West Virginia.
Ask whether it renews itself. Nebraska, North Carolina's circuit-breaker and Illinois's freeze all have to be re-filed every single year, and people lose them by assuming otherwise.
If you're in a local-option state, ring your county assessor rather than reading the state page. Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia, Tennessee and Connecticut all hand the decision to your county or town.
Stack it with the federal breaks you're owed. The $6,000 senior deduction is separate from all of this, and so is every other 2026 federal threshold.

Deadlines above come from each state's own application page or form, all linked below. They change, so confirm yours with the county before you rely on it.

If you want the mechanics of how the four tools work rather than the state-by-state figures, that's in the property tax breaks seniors miss. And if property tax is one of several bills you're trying to bring down, the bills that change after 65 covers the rest.

Educational information based on published SSA, IRS, CMS and Medicare rules, not tax, legal or financial advice. Figures change every year and your own notice or return is the document that governs your case. Verify anything here at ssa.gov, irs.gov or medicare.gov before you act on it.

Sources

One line per state, naming the page the row was read from. Where a state's own site blocked automated reading, the note on that row says which document was used instead.

This page is educational information, not personal financial advice and not tax advice. Every figure is the most recent one published by that state as of September 2026 and most are adjusted annually. Confirm your own eligibility, amount and deadline with your county assessor or your state's revenue department before relying on any of it.