generally speaking...spread of property taxes for NH town/counties for an acre of land and a 2 or 3 bedroom house (Nashua: for sale, real estate)

[Chris1001]

what's the lowest and in what parts of the state? And where would it be the highest and how much? Roundabout figures. Thanks.

[BF66389]

There are two variables at play that make this difficult:
1) Home's assessed value (mostly dependent on the homes square footage & location)
2) Town property tax rates (obviously dependent on the town)

I think *on average* you will find lower taxes the further north you go in NH and higher taxes further south; generally corresponding to home values. But their are obviously exceptions (lakes region for example has high taxes on waterfront homes), etc.

That said there is also diversity further south...Nashua/Merrimack are A LOT cheaper than Hollis/Amherst; but Hollis/Amherst are recognized for having better schools, etc...so as long as the money isn't being completely wasted- you tend to get what you pay for.

I know I didn't answer your question exactly...but wanted to throw that in there.

[AngelaK]

2008
This website has the tax rates for each town in NH, broken down by how much each portion is (education rate, town rate, state, etc). The total tax is per every 1k. Enjoy!

[georgio_93]

I wouldn't buy a house in NH with the 2nd highest property tax in the nation... better off finding a job first (if you can) and then renting. Sell your house from wherever you are coming from and dump it into US treasury's or bank CDs so your money is safe and use the interest to pay for your rent all year and live for free since 100% of NH revenue comes from the property tax. And no... just because property tax is high it doesn't correlate to rental prices since rent is based more on state income and the ability for people to pay, which is tough with NH economy. It will be less than the big economy liberal states like NY, New Jersey, MA, CA etc.

Between the house maintenence (wood exterior with harsh weather and septic & well maintanence, insurance, property tax, garbage excluded in property tax) you are spending beaucoup $$$. Still thinking real estate investing is so hot and will never come down??? I just hope you already sold your home. If your home is in a more metropolitan area where there is money you me be able to sell it easier and for closer to market value like it was a few years ago. I still have seen the same houses for sale from a year ago in NH all over Bedford so buying may be dangerous if you lose your job and are stuck with the mortgage payments, insurance, maintanence, and property tax.

I personally would only recommend buying if you can pay cash for it and have about 100k saved in some insured investment vehicle with a secure job.

[WannaComeHome]

that's pretty funny: you think a property owner is NOT going to pass on the taxes in the rent? they will. True, rent is likely to be created by a great many variables, and no one is going to take that big a loss. but if you think any landlord is going to eat the cost of maintenance and taxes just to have someone living there... you're in for a rude awakening.

BTW, just because someone decided that NH has the second highest property taxes in the country doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. So you looked at Bedford. And have you looked at the rest of the towns in NH? the taxes vary drastically. and they aren't particularly higher than what I pay in MD. Plus, you have to account for the rest of the tax burden - there's more to living somewhere than just property taxes. You need to do more homework before you decide where you want to live.

You do have a good point about renting: do try to rent for a year first and decide whether you want to stay there. That is a good idea. Maybe you should look at VT, it has to be cheaper than NH.

[BF66389]

Since "2nd highest property taxes" came up; I just need to throw this in:

Look at TOTAL cost of living for an accurate comparison, not just a comparison of one cost (property taxes). Remember NH has no income tax AND no sales tax.

...that is all

[seamusnh]

If I was able to take my house in NH and transplant it to a similar town in MA, let's say Westford, I'd pay more $$$ on real estate taxes than in NH. The property tas rate is meaningless as the valuations are so different; dollars count. I own a house in Boston and it is valued at about 125% of the market value.

BTW, if I were in Westford, I'd pay state income tax, sales tax, captital gains tax, and my car insurance would double. My mortgage would be much higher as the housing costs much more. Another expense would be if I sent my kids to private school in MA which it seems all of my friends in MA (who can afford to do so) do by about 7th or 9th grade... My sister in law told me her son's tuition is $14k per year. I'll take NH...

[georgio_93]

Well I am not dogging NH... it is a beautiful state. But VT is worse than NH because they have a higher overall tax burden and the same problem regarding the job market... what is there to do up there, make maple syrup and run a ski lodge? Seriously, it doesn't matter if NH has no tax at all if you don't have a job. In MA you can make 100k a year much easier and yes you pay way more tax but at the end of they day you net so much more money. So if you can't work in NH cause of the lack of jobs... what is left of your state? Retirees? Also, retirees probly have a rough time in NH with the high property tax living off of social security exclusively. Retirees don't care about sales tax or state income tax because they don't pay them anyway. NH would be better off abolishing the progressive socialist based property tax in the name of socialized education and implementing a 20% sales VAT tax and a 10% income tax. At least you can start having the MA freeloaders that vacation in your state to contribute to your excellent school system.

What is really sad is that I lived in CA for many years and as a fiscal conservative I can say it wasn't pleasant but I did make more money than in Texas by almost 40%. Sure I paid 7.25% sales tax and 9% state income tax but I still had more money at the end of the year than Texas. Plus my property tax under prop 13 in CA was about $3600 locked in for a 700k home. All of my utilities including water, sewage, garbage, electricity, gas wound up being no more than 3k per year. So at the end of the year if you add it all up I pretty much would pay about the same @ 9k per year as in NH but you pretty much make 3-4x the salary and have sidewalks, sewers, and water by aquaduct.

What is really messed up is that it must be so hard for NH citizens to even get by day to day especially young couples starting out which is a crime unless they have help from family members and friends. The best thing I can advise people to do is start your own business because working for someone else in this country is the worst. Ironically there is more job security running your own small business than working for someone else and I guarantee you will make more money and pay less taxes. Good Luck.

As to a previous poster, you can relay all your property tax on to your tenants but at 9k tax per year home, how much is the landlord scooping up on profit??? That is the real question. The less profit the landlord makes the more economical it is for the tenant to rent over buying. Secondly it is not just the property tax that they have to relay to the tenant but the maintenance of the home and insurance as well. Even if the Bedford home is 2k per month rental value that is 24k per year in rent. 700k in a CD @5% per year is 35k revenue...you can probly live for free renting in NH and be unemployed. With employment you can scoop up even more cash and live very comfortably. Hell! A good idea is to run your small business out of your apartment and deduct working square footage from your rent like you would property tax in a home and save even more $$$. In most parts of the country... especially the midwest a 4% annual average appreciation on a home is pathetic. You break even after property taxes and maintenence. Unfortunately this country is definately heading towards socialism if not already.... 2nd highest corporate income tax rate, socialized education, social security, medicare, sales tax, state income tax, federal income tax, property tax etc. Either way this election goes we are screwed... you have a geriatric war vet that knows nothing about the economy and is pro illegal immigration evidently and was against the bush tax cuts vs an Illinois corrupt crook that is going to raise taxes on the rich which will indirectly raise taxes on all of us by either lowering our wages, eliminating our jobs via outsourcing, or raise the amount on goods and services everyday. GJ America!! The country of Chili is more conservative than we are!

[BF66389]

Georgio, while I agree with you on many points I also would like to point out the poverty rate in NH (lowest in the country), average income (top 10%), crime rate (lowest), and total tax burden (very low). While I agree with you that you could make more money working in parts of MA (namely in Boston proper) or in another city (NYC, DC, LA, etc); you also need to look at home prices and other factors such as quality of life. Which, as long as you are "ok" with the winter and late spring...is great in NH.

I completely understand your looking at it in financial terms- but there is a lot more to it. There is a good deal of economic activity in NH (especially on a per-capita basis, the state is not heavily populated for the amount of business going on) and it is evident that folks here live fairly well looking at high level statistics.

[georgio_93]

Well the use of the term "poverty" is highly subjective. What is poor to me is rich to others. Quality of life is entirely different as well. Most people who make more money are actually more miserable. As for crime rates... that can most likely be attributed to population density which is extremely low in NH which correlates directly to the lack of jobs. I know your total tax burden and crime rates are extremely low but I haven't seen any accurate statistical data supporting unemployment figures which more accurately shows whether the state is in good shape or not compared to average income of existing jobs.