New Hampshire Mortgage Calculator

Why Is New Hampshire Property Tax So High? The Answer Is the “NH Advantage”

New Hampshire is one of the only states with neither a state income tax nor a state sales tax, a combination sometimes called the “NH Advantage” by relocation guides. Property tax is the tradeoff: it does virtually all of the heavy lifting for state and local revenue, which is exactly why New Hampshire’s effective property tax rate consistently ranks among the five highest in the country, with a statewide median effective rate close to 1.9%. Homes are assessed at 100% of fair market value, reassessed on a rolling cycle by each town’s own assessor, so there’s no assessment ratio to work through the way there is in many other states in this calculator series; the number that varies dramatically here is the rate itself.

Hillsborough, Rockingham, Merrimack, and Strafford: how the four biggest counties compare, and why “county rate” barely means anything

Rockingham County, New Hampshire’s affluent seacoast region including Portsmouth, Salem, and Derry, posts the highest median dollar tax bills in the state, driven by high home values even though its effective rate runs comparatively moderate. Hillsborough County, home to Manchester and Nashua, the state’s two largest cities, runs a somewhat higher effective rate. Merrimack County, centered on the state capital of Concord, and Strafford County, home to Dover, both run among the highest effective rates of New Hampshire’s larger counties. But the county figure genuinely understates how much this varies: published town-level rates across the state range from around $5.73 per $1,000 in low-tax coastal towns like New Castle, all the way past $35 per $1,000 in some rural towns with a thin commercial tax base carrying a proportionally heavier school burden. Switching counties above resets both price and rate defaults to a benchmark city in that county; always confirm your specific town’s current total rate.

SWEPT: the one piece of your bill that’s technically a state tax

New Hampshire’s total local rate is actually built from four separate pieces added together: the municipal rate, the county rate, the local school rate, and the Statewide Education Property Tax, commonly called SWEPT, set at $1.030 per $1,000 of value for 2026 under RSA 76:3 and 76:8. SWEPT is collected by your town along with everything else on a single bill, but it’s technically a state-level education tax, not a local one, which is part of why New Hampshire’s school funding system has faced repeated legal challenges over the decades. In 2025, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld SWEPT but also allowed property-wealthy towns to keep more of the “excess” SWEPT revenue they raise locally instead of remitting it to the state for redistribution to lower-value towns, a change many Seacoast communities viewed as a win for keeping tax dollars closer to home.

Relief that exists, but only if your specific town adopted it

New Hampshire’s Elderly Exemption, authorized under RSA 72:39-a and 72:39-b, lets each town set its own age-tiered assessed value reduction, commonly ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 depending on the age bracket, 65 to 74, 75 to 79, and 80 and older, along with town-set income and asset limits. The Veterans’ Tax Credit works differently: it’s a direct dollar credit against the bill itself, not a value reduction, with a $50 state minimum that most towns have voted to raise, commonly into the $51 to $750 range, while veterans with a total and permanent service-connected disability can receive a substantially larger credit, sometimes $4,000 or more depending on the town. Because these are all local-option programs, the exact amount, and whether they exist at all in a meaningful way, depends entirely on what your specific town has adopted.

Common Mistakes New Hampshire Buyers Make With the Numbers

• Applying a single “New Hampshire rate” or even a county average. Town-level rates vary by a factor of six or more across the state; the county figure is only a starting benchmark.
• Assuming SWEPT is separate from the property tax bill. It’s billed together with municipal, county, and school rates as one combined number, even though it’s technically a state tax.
• Assuming every town offers the same Elderly Exemption or Veterans’ Credit amount. Both are local-option programs, and amounts differ significantly town to town.
• Treating New Hampshire’s “no income tax, no sales tax” reputation as low overall taxation. Property tax absorbs that revenue instead, and effective rates run among the highest in the country.
• Forgetting the buyer’s share of the transfer tax. New Hampshire is one of the few states in this calculator series where the buyer genuinely owes a piece of it.

Tips for Lowering Your New Hampshire Mortgage Payment

1. Look up your specific town’s current total mill rate before assuming a county average applies; the spread within a single county can be substantial.
2. If a borrower on title is 65 or older, check your town’s specific Elderly Exemption age tiers and income limits with the local assessor.
3. If a veteran is on title, confirm your town’s adopted Veterans’ Tax Credit amount, and ask about the larger disabled veteran credit if applicable.
4. Compare towns within the same county, not just counties against each other, since New Hampshire’s town-by-town variation is unusually wide.
5. Use the extra-payment scenario above; even a modest additional principal payment compounds meaningfully over a 30-year New Hampshire loan.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

• New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration, Municipal and Property Division, SWEPT and exemption guidance – revenue.nh.gov
• Hillsborough, Rockingham, Merrimack, and Strafford County municipal assessor offices, current town tax rates – town government sites
• RSA 76:3, 76:8 (SWEPT); RSA 72:39-a, 72:39-b (Elderly Exemption); RSA 72:28, 72:35 (Veterans’ Tax Credit)
• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, weekly national rate averages – freddiemac.com/pmms

Related DexoCalc Tools

This New Hampshire mortgage calculator is part of the Mortgage Calculators cluster I am building out on DexoCalc. Start with the national Mortgage Calculator to compare New Hampshire against any other state, see another New England state taxing entirely at the local level in the Maine Mortgage Calculator, compare a state that also splits its transfer tax between buyer and seller in the Delaware Mortgage Calculator, or check a state at the opposite tax extreme in the New Jersey Mortgage Calculator. Browse every state-specific tool as new ones publish on the full Mortgage Calculators hub.

This calculator provides estimates for educational purposes only and is not a loan offer, pre-approval, or substitute for advice from a licensed New Hampshire mortgage professional or tax advisor. Property tax, exemption, credit, and transfer tax figures are approximations that vary by town and individual circumstances; confirm exact figures with your town assessor. Sources: New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration, town assessor offices, Freddie Mac.