Here is a number that does not fit the story most people tell themselves about crossing the state line: a median home in Windham, New Hampshire, carries an effective property tax rate of 1.42 percent. A median home in Andover, Massachusetts, carries an effective rate of 1.29 percent. Windham's rate is higher. Not close to Andover's. Higher.
If you have spent any time comparing Massachusetts to New Hampshire, that sentence should stop you. The entire pitch for crossing the border rests on one idea: no state income tax, no general sales tax, lower cost of living. And that pitch is not wrong, exactly. It is just incomplete in a way that matters if you are actually deciding between a house in North Andover and a house forty minutes north on the other side of the line.
The Pitch You've Already Heard
New Hampshire has no tax on earned wages and no sales tax on anything you buy. That much is true and it is real money, especially for higher earners. What that pitch leaves out is what New Hampshire does instead: it funds nearly everything, schools, roads, police and fire, through the property tax bill that lands in your mailbox twice a year. There is no third option. If the state is not collecting from your paycheck or your purchases, it is collecting from your house.
That trade-off does not automatically favor Massachusetts, and it does not automatically favor New Hampshire either. It depends entirely on which town you are comparing, and most of the comparison guides built for this decision stop at "no income tax" and never run the actual numbers on specific streets.
What the Rate Actually Does Once You Add the Zeros
Here is where the towns line up as of the most recent certified rates:
| Town | Median Home Value | Effective Property Tax Rate | Approx. Annual Tax Bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andover, MA | $820,900 | 1.29% | $10,573 |
| North Andover, MA | $692,850 | 1.13% | $7,802 |
| Salem, NH | ~$600,000 | ~1.28% | ~$7,680 |
| Windham, NH | $723,300 | 1.42% | $10,234 |
Salem's rate lands almost exactly where Andover's does. Windham's rate runs higher than both Massachusetts towns on the list, and North Andover, the Massachusetts town with the lowest home values here, actually carries the lowest effective rate of the four. If your mental model was "cross the border, taxes drop," this table does not support it. The town matters more than the state line.
There is a technical reason the comparison gets confusing before you even get to the dollar amounts. Massachusetts assesses property at what the law calls full and fair cash value, reset every January 1st to track the actual market. New Hampshire towns do not always do that. Salem, for instance, assesses homes at roughly 70.5 percent of market value, so its posted rate of $18.16 per $1,000 of assessed value looks alarming next to Andover's $12.34 per $1,000 until you convert both to the same basis: tax bill divided by what the house would actually sell for. Once you do that conversion, Salem and Andover come out almost identical. Comparing posted rates across the state line without adjusting for the assessment ratio is how a lot of these comparisons go wrong before the second sentence.
Why Windham's Rate Isn't a Fluke
Salem's 2025 tax rate breaks into four pieces: local education at $10.70 per $1,000, municipal services at $5.90, state education at $1.41, and Rockingham County at $0.78. Roughly 64 cents of every dollar collected funds schools, between the local and state education pieces combined. That structure is not unique to Salem. Every New Hampshire town north of the Massachusetts line funds its schools almost entirely through this same property tax mechanism, because there is no income tax revenue to lean on and no sales tax to spread the load across visitors and commerce.
Windham's higher effective rate reflects the same math applied to a town where new construction has been running hot. Developments like Spruce Pond Estates, the Woods of Heritage Hill, and Wood Meadow Estates have added higher-value homes to the tax base in recent years, and waterfront lots on Cobbetts Pond and homes fronting the Scottish Highlands golf course sit at the upper end of what the town assesses. More school-age households in higher-value homes means a bigger local education levy, and that levy is the biggest single line on the bill. New Hampshire rates are finalized every October by the state's Department of Revenue Administration, so the 2026 figures will be certified this fall, after this year's spending and enrollment numbers are locked in.
The Number That Actually Changes the Answer
None of this means the no-income-tax pitch is false. It means the pitch only tells you about one side of the ledger. For a household earning $250,000 or more, the absence of a Massachusetts income tax bill is worth far more than the property tax gap between Andover and Windham, even with Windham's higher rate. For a household closer to the regional median income, the property tax difference matters more, because there is less income to shelter in the first place.
The market backdrop makes the timing relevant right now. New Hampshire's Realtors reported the state's first ever billion-dollar sales month in June 2026, with 1,474 closed single-family sales pushing the statewide median to $575,000, up 1.1 percent from a year earlier. That is not a market cooling off. It is a market where the tax math on any given town matters more, not less, because prices are not leaving much room for error.
What This Looks Like Town by Town
Southern New Hampshire is not one market. It is a string of towns with distinct pricing and distinct tax exposure, and the differences show up fast once you leave the interstate exits:
- Windham is the priciest of the group, with luxury listings clustering near $850,000 and the town's overall 12-month median running into the $870,000s depending on the mix of homes sold. Both figures sit well above the $723,300 median used for the tax-roll calculation above, a gap that shows how far Windham's live market has moved since the last town-wide valuation. It also carries the highest effective tax rate on this list.
- Londonderry runs hot on speed rather than price, with median list prices around $652,500, homes going pending in as few as six days for well-priced properties, and more than 70 percent of sales closing above list.
- Hudson is the relative value play directly across the river from Nashua, with a median list price near $599,900 but actual closed sales landing closer to $460,000, driven by a heavy mix of condo and townhouse activity.
- Litchfield has seen the sharpest price movement of the bunch, with median listing prices up nearly 19.5 percent year over year to $627,450 on its larger, more rural lots.
- Bedford sits at the top of the price range entirely, with a median list price around $1,195,000 in early 2026.
Line those towns up against North Andover's effective rate of 1.13 percent on a median home value in the $650,000 to $693,000 range, and the picture stops being "Massachusetts versus New Hampshire" and starts being a town-by-town spreadsheet exercise. That is the comparison worth doing before you fall in love with a listing photo.
The Question to Ask Before You Compare Towns
Skip the rate on the listing sheet. It is measuring different things in different states and it will mislead you every time. Ask instead: what is the actual annual tax bill on this specific house, at its actual assessed value, and how does that compare to the income and sales tax you would otherwise owe on the Massachusetts side. That single calculation, run on the specific properties you are actually considering, tells you more than any state-level generalization about which side of the line makes financial sense for your household.
FAQ
Is Windham's higher effective rate unusual for Southern New Hampshire? Not particularly. Towns with strong new construction and higher home values tend to carry higher local education levies, since that piece scales with enrollment and spending rather than shrinking as home values rise. Windham is a clear example, not an outlier.
Does the no-income-tax savings still make crossing the border worth it? For higher earners, usually yes, because the income tax savings on the Massachusetts side dwarf a percentage point or two of difference in property tax rate. For buyers closer to the regional median income, the property tax gap between specific towns carries more weight in the total comparison.
When will New Hampshire's 2026 property tax rates be finalized? New Hampshire's Department of Revenue Administration certifies each town's rate every October, based on that year's budget and enrollment figures. Rates billed through 2026 reflect the 2025 certified figures until the fall update lands.
If you are weighing a move between Andover, North Andover, or the Southern New Hampshire towns just across the line, the honest answer depends on the specific house and the specific town, not a headline about income tax. Henry Gourdeau can run the real numbers on the properties you are actually considering, on either side of the border. Schedule your free consultation to get a clear-eyed read before you decide which line to cross.
