Real estate taxes include State, local, and all other real estate taxes even if delinquent, unpaid, or paid by someone who is not a member of the household. However, taxes due from prior years are not included. If taxes are paid on other than a yearly basis, the payments are converted to a yearly basis.

The payment for real estate taxes is added to payments for fire, hazard, and flood insurance; utilities and fuels; and mortgages (both first and junior mortgages and home equity loans) to derive "Selected Monthly Owner Costs" and "Selected Monthly Owner Costs as a Percentage of Household Income in 1989." A separate question (H23c) determines whether real estate taxes are included in the mortgage payment to the lender(s). This makes it possible to avoid counting taxes twice in the computations.

Comparability--Data for real estate taxes were collected for the first time in 1980. The question was asked only at owner-occupied one-family houses. Excluded were mobile homes or trailers, condominiums, houses with a business or medical office on the property, houses on 10 or more acres, and housing units in multi-unit buildings. In 1990, the question was asked of all one-family owner-occupied houses, including houses on 10 or more acres. It also was asked at mobile homes, condominiums, and one-family houses with a business or medical office on the property.