NH Real Estate Tax Rates

[Mark from ?]

I'm two years into retirement so I'm still figuring it out. The NH property is 3 season only. New Hampshire has the 3rd highest property taxes in the country so a fairly high tax bill for a property sitting on posts.

We have looked at downsizing but what we want doesn't exist, couple acres with one floor living. I really don't want a small lot.

I also hate the heat and have zero interest in living in heat during the summer.

We have bantered this around dozens of times and still not 100% sure what to do.

Which is why you keep the place up north for the summer and move south for winter.....not that hard.

I recommend you own the place down south as the taxes are lower....then look for something for the summer that doesn't have big taxes.

Like a camp not on a lake in Maine, where taxes are lower. Or just Air BNB somewhere not too touristy....that won't cost a lot and has zero upkeep, and tax liability. You just rent for 3 months. What I don't want to do is own anything up in NE....but it doesn't mean I'm not going to do some snowbirding to get away from summer heat.

As much as I didn't want to buy a place in Maine my lifelong buddy just bought one there on a lake. I have no interest with the lake, and now have access thru him if I wanted to. He has a camper as well as part of the purchase, and I'm just considering buying it, but he would just let me stay Im sure. I may do that a few times this summer and just see if I like the area enough.

The area's off lake real estate is so cheap I'm also just looking at buying something and building a garage apt for the summers so we can hang with them and do some ATV'ing and boating. I guess I could use it for bear/grouse hunting too. Its not even gonna dent what we have saved for land, never mind we still have the full amount to buy a house down south when the time comes. Taxes are cheap.

Also....I can get a flight from Ft Myers here to Bangor direct and cheap on Breeze, and being 20 mins from the airport here....its easy.

 

[Sf Becket]

That's one option on the table no doubt.

I’m thinking about doing the same thing…..

 

[Admin]

I'll say it again and again. The reckless spending spree public government is on will drive most people out of their homes.

All by design

 

[45Badger]

The 4 way stop sign!! LOL, so stupid. Moutain Road bridge was just replaced. We are heavily supporting the Goshen school kids.

I remember a few years back a women and her boyfriend in Marlow killed her husband and buried him in the front yard and put a swing set over his grave......

I can see that. It’s an eclectic place. Aaron’s has good ice cream in season.

 

[45Badger]

My NH camp is $5600 per year for a 3 season valued at 207,000. And I cost the town very little.

Maine property taxes are much cheaper. Our waterfront 3 season place is valued at 3x that and the annual taxes are $3000. Maine income tax is ridiculous as soon as you make $10,000.

The property taxes are kept artificially low to keep granny and gramps in their homes. It drives away young workers.

 

[NH_Realtor]

$13k for our 1500 sq ft ranch in PRM. We are paying an extra 3k for our NH house, but it is roughly twice the size on twice the lot.

And much newer!

 

[FalArAk]

For many years my NH property taxes were paid July and December. Last year the December bill was delayed over a month as the tax rates were late being released. When they released the rates I got kicked in the groin with a 17% increase to my tax bill.

This year the tax rates have been delayed AGAIN and so no bill for December and I'm sitting here thinking the SOBs are gonna kick me in the groin again with another big increase.

Why do NH voters keep voting for this bullshit?

I hate to say it, but you get what you voted for.

You should nove to a state where they value freedom.

 

[71montess]

Why do NH voters keep voting for this bullshit?

I hate to say it, but you get what you voted for.

You should nove to a state where they value freedom.

Sunnunu had a lot of fat in his goverment. He had DEI executives he brought up from Ma as one example, he worked with Metropolitan Area Planning Councils to build up small towns . Yep, he was no small government republican.

 

[timbo]

When I sold my house in Boscawen, NH in 2020, my taxes on 4/5ths acre was $5.2K...that same house was sold this past September for $100K more than I sold it for back then and the taxes are almost $7.2K. Here in Missouri I own a house that is one and a half times the size of the one I owned in NH and over 10 acres of land, mostly fields and a bit of forest on a road that I'm lucky if I see 20 vehicles a day. Taxes were $465 this year. If I lived within the city limits (a "city" of 2700 people), taxes would be a bit more...like $700 but then, they get trash pickup, city water and sewer. I'd rather live outside the limits. Less riff raff.

 

[timbo]

I'll say it again and again. The reckless spending spree public government is on will drive most people out of their homes.

It drove my parents out of NH in 1986. They owned about 100 acres of mostly forested land in Twin Mt. with a beautiful brook trout stream running through it and even with reduced taxes on the forested part of the land, it was unsustainable for them. When they bought the property in 1961, their taxes were about $120 a year. When they sold it, the annual taxes were approaching $7K and there was talk about it going over $10K in two years. Schools in NH soak up about 80%+ of property taxes.

 

[Chris]

All by design

Worked on my family.

My grandfather built a fairly modest home on Lake Winnipesaukee on land that had been in the family for several generations. The shore was a small cove. When the property taxes began including a surcharge for waterfront, the measurement was from the property line on one side to the line on the other. It added something like $3000 to the tax bill. Which was a LOT compared to what the rest of the bill totaled.

In 1998, the property was "reevaluated" and suddenly the frontage went up by an incredible amount.

You know the old saying that the distance along a shore is infinite because you can always use a smaller unit of measure. Well, I don't know what device they used, but they managed to find over $14,000 in "frontage". The value was appealed, of course, but the town didn't care. The family simply could not cover that kind of tax bill and were pretty much forced to sell.

Since the southern shores of the lake tend to have deep water moorings (it was over 40' just off the shore at the end of the cove) the area has become very valuable and the taxes have continued to force out all but the wealthy.

It is absolutely by design.

It's sad to see all the things in West Alton that bear my mother's family name and there is only one member of the family anywhere in the area now, and they don't live anywhere near the water.

 

[KBCraig]

property tax rates in NH towns are generally higher than MA towns
mass avg around 1.2
nh avg around 1.9

Rates are meaningless until you apply them to the property value. Towns with cheap houses have high rates. The towns with the lowest rates have unaffordable houses.

 

[Broc Tuah]

We enjoy the income and sales tax differential.

I would rather pay NH RE tax than MA income tax + MA RE tax + MA sales tax.

 

[bigben111435]

Rates are meaningless until you apply them to the property value. Towns with cheap houses have high rates. The towns with the lowest rates have unaffordable houses.

sucks to be taxed on owning residential property so much in the northeast. and the increases have been more frequent.
And yes, it is mostly because of "increased property value", ( not higher tax rates) which for most of us is an unrealized gain we are taxed on.
Towns have learned to use 3rd party tax assessment companies to drive up property values, because they know a tax increase would be more difficult to push on the residents.
when you may have bought a property for 100k now its worth 500k you have made no improvements to the property, the tax rate has stayed the same, but now your taxes are 5x the original cost because of a new assessment it is a f***ing crime.

you can fight the assessment, though i never have

 

[M1911]

Rates are meaningless until you apply them to the property value. Towns with cheap houses have high rates. The towns with the lowest rates have unaffordable houses.

I believe Rye has quite low rates. The values, on the other hand…

 

[BroncoAZ]

I can see that. It’s an eclectic place. Aaron’s has good ice cream in season.

We need an Ice Cream is too f***ing expensive thread. It’s hard to find a single cone on Cape Cod under $6 anymore. A double in a waffle cone is $8. What used to be a weekly treat for my family is now 1-2x per summer.

 

[45Badger]

Why do NH voters keep voting for this bullshit?

I hate to say it, but you get what you voted for.

You should nove to a state where they value freedom.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha……

 

[45Badger]

I would rather pay NH RE tax than MA income tax + MA RE tax + MA sales tax.

Me, too. It does not suck.

 

[45Badger]

We need an Ice Cream is too f***ing expensive thread. It’s hard to find a single cone on Cape Cod under $6 anymore. A double in a waffle cone is $8. What used to be a weekly treat for my family is now 1-2x per summer.

Aarons is not cheap but has huge portions of killer ice cream. Rural obesity and diabetes are are thing

 

[HARRYM]

People shouldn't get distracted by rates versus values. It's the amount of taxes you pay when all is said and done. And once public government spends your taxes they ain't ever going to spend less....ever....

If real estate drops by 50% your taxes won't drop by 505. Public Government will simply increase the tax rates to keep taxes rising.

We focus a lot on Federal spending, as we should, but we should remember that local and state governments are out of control spenders on a crack cocaine binge.

 

[rudiewhitebwoy]

It drove my parents out of NH in 1986. They owned about 100 acres of mostly forested land in Twin Mt. with a beautiful brook trout stream running through it and even with reduced taxes on the forested part of the land, it was unsustainable for them. When they bought the property in 1961, their taxes were about $120 a year. When they sold it, the annual taxes were approaching $7K and there was talk about it going over $10K in two years. Schools in NH soak up about 80%+ of property taxes.

I pay almost $8,000 a year in Beverly for a third of an acre lot with a 1940's Cape. I pay $3,200 a year in Twin Mountain for five acre lot with a 1960's Cape. I pay $1,400 a year in Twin Mountain for the 176 acres that surround that Cape. Gotta love Current Use.

 

[timbo]

I pay almost $8,000 a year in Beverly for a third of an acre lot with a 1940's Cape. I pay $3,200 a year in Twin Mountain for five acre lot with 1960's Cape. I pay $1,400 a year in Twin Mountain for the 176 acres that surround that Cape. Gotta love Current Use.

When my parents owned the property in Twin, about 80% of their land was taxed per "current use" but sometime in the 80's (I wasn't really paying attention to the laws then) there was a move in NH to re-schedule current use tax rates up and my mom and dad didn't want to hang around to find out. As it turned out, they did raise the current use tax rate but not as much as Concord wanted.

When they built the Regional HS in Whitefield, most people didn't want it but they all got stuck with property taxes that almost doubled in one year, especially in Twin because in 1968 (I think) they closed the town school and bused us to Whitefield.

My parents ended up selling the place in 1982, rented a place in Whitefield for a while then moved to South Dakota in 1986. They're still there...

 

[HARRYM]

Lempster up to $28.86 from $27.11 so close to 6.5% increase. IF my evaluation remains the same I am going to be very close to $6000 per year for a 3 season camp. They were crawling all over this past summer doing re-evaluations so not likely my evaluation stays the same.

$6000+ per year for very little. I am not a resident there.

The camp belonged to my in-laws and the wife loves the place but I tell her $6000+ and utilities, upkeep and all totaled it may well be between $8000-$8500 per year. She wants to travel, I tell her, pick your poison. For $8500 we could take a great vacation every year as long as we are able.

NH real estate taxes are going to continue to rocket up and I tell the wife that look, they are gonna run us out of there eventually.

 

[namedpipes]

property tax rates in NH towns are generally higher than MA towns
mass avg around 1.2
nh avg around 1.9

Home values are significantly higher in Mass. That slightly lower tax rate gets more exercise than the NH version, though. Your own situation can be better or worse up north (or south).

We still have some property in Mass but moved to NH a couple years back. Now paying two states but the sum total is around $15k LESS with the move. We did trade down in size but the new digs are worlds more comfortable and suitable for us.

Point being your own existing home & equity can easily get you the same or better setting for a lot less money.

If you trade up from a Mass based double-wide to a luxury condo having million-dollar mountain vistas, you're going to pay for it, yes.

 

[Kevin_NH]

In New Hampshire, each town submits their total town-wide valuation, any discounts (elderly, etc) and their town budget, and the NH Department of Revenue Administration sets a tax rate sufficient to fund the resident-approved town budget, and not a dollar more.

sucks to be taxed on owning residential property so much in the northeast. and the increases have been more frequent.
And yes, it is mostly because of "increased property value", ( not higher tax rates) which for most of us is an unrealized gain we are taxed on.
Towns have learned to use 3rd party tax assessment companies to drive up property values, because they know a tax increase would be more difficult to push on the residents.

NH towns don't get to collect more money because of higher total town-wide assessments. Unless your assessment is drastically out of line with the other town residents, your tax bill will not increase just because of a town-wide revaluation.

What drives up the bottom line dollar amount on your tax bill is increases to the town budget (mostly schools).

 

[jakeroub]

Lempster up to $28.86 from $27.11 so close to 6.5% increase. IF my evaluation remains the same I am going to be very close to $6000 per year for a 3 season camp. They were crawling all over this past summer doing re-evaluations so not likely my evaluation stays the same.

$6000+ per year for very little. I am not a resident there.

The camp belonged to my in-laws and the wife loves the place but I tell her $6000+ and utilities, upkeep and all totaled it may well be between $8000-$8500 per year. She wants to travel, I tell her, pick your poison. For $8500 we could take a great vacation every year as long as we are able.

NH real estate taxes are going to continue to rocket up and I tell the wife that look, they are gonna run us out of there eventually.

$6,000- you are lucky. The property taxes on our camp in Wolfeboro are $16,442 this year. No insulation, no heat, one half bath (no indoor shower or tub). Only really usable maybe 15 weeks out of the year. No town water, sewer, or trash pickup.

 

[M1911]

$6,000- you a lucky. The property taxes on our camp in Wolfeboro are $16,442 this year. No insulation, no heat, one half bath (no indoor shower or tub). Only really usable maybe 15 weeks out of the year. No town water, sewer, or trash pickup.

Waterfront?

 

[jakeroub]

Waterfront?

Yes. My grandfathers aunt bought it in 1925. No chance we’d never sell willingly, but the cost is insane.

 

[Nhusa]

I worked in MA and lived in NH, so I was double screwed.
I looked at moving to Mass but the real estate taxes weren’t much better.
Our real estate taxes in NH approached $12,000 a year.

when it became time to retire we decided to screw the northeast (weather, politics, cost of living, etc.) and move to NC.
We got a bigger and newer home for less than we sold our home in NH and the real estate tax is less than $5,000 a year.
We are less than 30 minutes from 2 level 1 trauma hospitals and our social security wages are not taxed by the state.

 

[KBCraig]

What drives up the bottom line dollar amount on your tax bill is increases to the town budget (mostly schools).

Property taxes are fully controllable by the taxpayers, but few bother to show up to the deliberative session or town meeting. Who shows up? Town and school employees.