How to estimate property tax and insurance on a Zillow listing

Short answer: The property tax on a Zillow listing is usually the current owner’s bill, and it may not be yours. In states that reassess on sale, recompute it: your purchase price times the local effective rate, plus any special assessments. For insurance, start with an estimate, then get real quotes, and price a landlord policy if you’ll rent it out.

Taxes and insurance are two of the biggest costs after the mortgage, and they’re often copied straight from the listing. That works in some places and badly misleads in others. Here is how to tell which, and how to build your own numbers.

Why isn’t the listing’s tax number my tax number?

The “Public tax history” on a listing shows what the current owner paid. That bill reflects their purchase price, how long they’ve owned it, and any exemptions they claim. Your bill depends on your price, your use of the property, and your state’s rules on what happens at a sale.

• California. Under Proposition 13, the rate is limited to 1 percent plus whatever is needed to pay local voter-approved bonds, and property is reassessed to current market level on a change in ownership. Between sales, and unless there is new construction such as an added unit, the assessed base can rise no more than 2 percent a year (Sacramento County Assessor). A seller who bought 20 years ago may pay a fraction of what you will.
• Florida. The non-homestead 10 percent cap (which doesn’t limit school taxes) carries only through the year of the sale; the property is reassessed at full market value the year after (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser). Florida voters approved Amendment 3 on November 3, 2026 (about 62 percent yes, CBS12). It cuts that cap to 5 percent and raises the homestead exemption, with the changes phasing in from 2027, so check the county property appraiser for the rules in the year you buy (Manatee County Property Appraiser).
• Texas. Texas has no state property tax; local governments set rates and collect it, and it is the largest single source of local funding (Texas Comptroller). The Lincoln Institute notes that the state’s heavy reliance on property tax partly results from having no personal income tax (Lincoln Institute). A sale also ends the seller’s homestead exemption, and the temporary 20 percent cap on non-homestead property (authorized for 2024 through 2026) falls away, so the value moves to current market (Tarrant Appraisal District). Small errors in the rate add up fast.

Some states keep the old assessment after a sale, so the listing’s bill is a better guide there. Check your county’s rule before you trust it.

How do I recompute the tax from my price?

1. Find the local effective rate. Your county tax collector or assessor publishes the rates for each area. Add the base rate and the voter-approved or district levies for that parcel.
2. Multiply by your expected price. Price × rate gives an annual running-cost estimate. In reassess-on-sale states, this is closer to your real bill than the seller’s history. It is not your closing-year cash timing: in California, a purchase can trigger one or two separate supplemental bills that go to you, not your lender (California BOE). Ask the county for an estimate using your closing date, and confirm with your loan servicer who pays it. Don’t add it on top of a full reassessed year, which would double-count.
3. Add special assessments. In California, Mello-Roos (Community Facilities District) special taxes are typically collected on the regular property tax bill (City of Fontana), and on a home sale the seller must make a good-faith effort to give the buyer a special tax disclosure notice; the latest tax bill can serve (Cal. Civil Code § 1102.6b). In Texas, a Municipal Utility District repays its bonds with its own property tax (Texas Real Estate Research Center), and the seller generally must give the buyer a written district notice before the contract is signed (Tex. Water Code § 49.452).
4. Leave out exemptions you won’t get. See the next section.

Or try the property tax after you buy estimator to run these numbers for your price and state.

Do the seller’s exemptions carry over to me?

Usually not automatically, and in most states homestead exemptions don’t apply to an investment property. Homestead exemptions are tied to the owner who lives there. In Florida, the home must be the owner’s permanent residence as of January 1 to qualify for the homestead exemption (the first $25,000 plus up to another $25,000, now adjusted for inflation, that doesn’t apply to school taxes; Amendment 3, approved in November 2026, raises it starting in 2027), and a home that is rented out no longer qualifies (Florida Department of Revenue). The Save Our Homes cap of 3 percent (or CPI, if lower) doesn’t apply to property that isn’t homesteaded or is rented, and a sale resets it (Pinellas County Property Appraiser). There are exceptions: Utah’s primary residential exemption can cover a home a full-time tenant lives in (Utah County Assessor).

So if the seller lived in the home and you plan to rent it, budget for the full non-homestead bill unless your county says otherwise. If you plan to live there, you’ll still need to apply for your own exemption.

How do I estimate insurance?

A state average is fine for a first screen. Before an offer, get real quotes. What moves the price:

• Replacement cost. Coverage should match the cost to rebuild, not the sale price, which includes land (NAIC).
• Roof age. On a policy that deducts depreciation, an older roof pays out less. In one Texas Department of Insurance example, a 20-year-old roof pays nothing after the deductible (Texas Department of Insurance).
• Wind, hail and wildfire exposure. Coastal and high-risk areas can cost far more than the state figure.
• Deductible. A higher deductible lowers the premium but raises what you pay after a loss.

Rentals need a landlord policy. Homeowners (HO-3) coverage is generally for owner-occupied homes. A rented home goes on a landlord policy, also called a dwelling fire policy (DP-1, DP-2 or DP-3). Landlord policies usually cost more than homeowners coverage (one estimate puts it at 15 to 20 percent more), so price one before you run the numbers (HouseLogic).

Flood is separate. Most standard homeowners policies don’t cover flood damage, and a flood policy typically takes 30 days to start (FEMA). If the home is in a high-risk flood area and the loan comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, the lender must require flood insurance (FEMA), so quote it early.

Where do tax and insurance go in my numbers?

• Monthly cost (living in it): mortgage payment + tax ÷ 12 + insurance ÷ 12 + HOA and other fees.
• Cap rate (renting it): net operating income ÷ price. Tax and insurance are operating expenses and come out of NOI. The mortgage does not; cap rate ignores financing.
• Cash flow: NOI minus the mortgage payment. Every dollar of tax or insurance you missed comes straight off cash flow.

A worked example

Example scenario · sample data, not a real listing.

A California duplex is listed at $800,000. Public tax history shows $2,900 a year; the seller bought in 2004. Rent is $2,800 a unit, or $67,200 a year. After 5 percent vacancy, that’s $63,840. Other operating costs (repairs, management, utilities) are $7,200.

Using the listing’s numbers: tax $2,900, a homeowners-style insurance guess of $1,600. Expenses $11,700, NOI $52,140, cap rate 6.5 percent.

Recomputed: the sample area’s total rate is 1.1 percent (1 percent plus local bonds), so tax is $8,800. The parcel also carries a $1,200 Mello-Roos special tax that, in this sample, the listing’s figure doesn’t include (on a real listing, check the bill, since it often does). A landlord policy quotes at $2,400. Expenses $19,600, NOI $44,240, cap rate 5.5 percent.

That’s $7,900 a year, about $658 a month, that the listing’s numbers left out. Cash flow drops by the same amount, and a deal that looked positive at the seller’s tax bill may not be.

Do it faster with Caza

Caza’s investor numbers estimate cap rate and monthly cash flow on Zillow listings, with tax and insurance figures you can edit. For taxes, Caza starts from the listing’s tax history when Zillow shows it: where a sale resets the assessment, it applies the rate from the seller’s last bill and assessment to your price; where it doesn’t, it uses the seller’s bill. Either way it adds a caveat that the seller’s bill may reflect exemptions a new owner won’t get. Without a tax history, it uses a county or state average. For insurance, it uses a figure the listing shows when there is one, otherwise an estimate, and it adds a Verify HOA coverage note when the listing says the HOA fee includes insurance or the building. Type in your own tax figure (your county rate plus any special tax) or a real insurance quote, and the numbers update.

Confirm with the county assessor and an insurance agent; this isn’t tax, legal or insurance advice.

Caza is independent and not affiliated with Zillow. Comps and rents come from public Zillow pages and are a starting point, not an appraisal.