Concord, NH — (March 5, 2008) -

Conventional wisdom says that New Hampshire has some of the highest property taxes in the country. But that’s not necessarily true, according to the new study “Not as High as You Think” released today (March 5, 2008) by Daphne Kenyon, PhD of D. A. Kenyon & Associates.

“The most common measures of property tax burden are property taxes per capita and property taxes per $1,000 in personal income,” says Kenyon, co-author of the report. But those measures are flawed, according to Kenyon, since the property tax base includes a number of components beyond residential property, including property taxes on commercial, industrial, and utility properties, as well as taxes on second homes. “Since non-residents are not counted in per capita or income measurements, states with a higher proportion of second homes will show erroneously high property tax burdens,” says Kenyon, noting that New Hampshire has the third highest percentage of second homes in the country—over three times the U.S. average.

According to the report, a better way to measure property tax burdens is known as an “effective tax rate,” which compares property taxes to the market value of property. The report cites an annual assessment conducted by the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, which examines four property types--residential homesteads, commercial property, industrial property, and apartments--in the largest urban area of each state. Using this method, the 2007 study found the effective tax rate for New Hampshire to be well below rankings based on per capita or personal income measures, with a rank of between 13th and 45th among the states.

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