Plymouth NH property taxes are $23.77 per $1,000 of assessed value for 2025, the rate the NH Department of Revenue Administration set on December 9, 2025 and still the current Plymouth tax rate as of September 2026. A house assessed at $450,000 pays $10,696.50 a year, about $891 a month — a higher rate than any town Plymouth borders.
In New Hampshire the property tax carries almost everything: there is no tax on wages, no general sales tax, and since January 1, 2025 no interest-and-dividends tax. Every dollar a town, its schools and its county spend comes off the land and buildings inside the town line. This is the Plymouth-specific companion to our statewide New Hampshire property tax guide; every rate below is labeled with its tax year and comes from the DRA's 2025 municipal tax rate table or the Town of Plymouth.
Quick answers (as of September 2026):
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Current rate | $23.77 per $1,000 (2025 tax year); the 2026 rate is set in late autumn 2026 |
| Tax on a $450,000 assessment | $10,696.50 a year |
| Bills | Two a year — July 1 (estimate) and a December true-up |
| Abatement deadline | March 1 after the December bill (RSA 76:16) |
| Exemption filing deadline | April 15, on DRA form PA-29 |
| Late interest | 8% a year; 14% once a lien is recorded |
| Assessing / Tax Collector | 6 Post Office Square · (603) 536-1731 x100 / (603) 536-4733 |
The four parts of a Plymouth tax bill
A New Hampshire tax rate is not one number. It is four separate rates, set by four different bodies, added together and printed as a total. Plymouth's 2025 rates break down like this.
| Component | 2025 rate per $1,000 | Bill on a $450,000 assessment | What it pays for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town (municipal) | $9.97 | $4,486.50 | Police, fire, ambulance, highway, town offices, library, recreation, debt service |
| Local school | $11.55 | $5,197.50 | The Plymouth School District and Plymouth's assessed share of the Pemi-Baker Regional School District |
| State education | $1.10 | $495.00 | The statewide education property tax, retained locally for Plymouth's schools |
| County | $1.15 | $517.50 | Grafton County — the nursing home, the courts complex, the sheriff, the registry of deeds |
| Total | $23.77 | $10,696.50 |
Three things are worth noticing in that table.
- The school lines are more than half the bill. Local school plus state education is $12.65 of the $23.77 — 53% of what a Plymouth owner pays. When people say New Hampshire funds schools with property taxes, this is what they mean, literally.
- The county line is small. Grafton County costs a Plymouth owner about $518 a year on a $450,000 house. County is almost never the reason one town's rate differs from another's.
- The state education line never leaves Plymouth. Under RSA 76:3 the DRA sets the statewide education property tax to raise $363 million a year. For 2025 it used a uniform $1.120 per $1,000 of each town's 2023 equalized valuation (without utilities); Plymouth's warrant was $868,029, which the town raises and keeps for its own schools.
Here is what the 2025 total rate produces across the range of assessments we actually see in Plymouth.
| Assessed value | Annual tax at $23.77 | Roughly per month |
|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $5,942.50 | $495 |
| $350,000 | $8,319.50 | $693 |
| $450,000 | $10,696.50 | $891 |
| $600,000 | $14,262.00 | $1,189 |
| $850,000 | $20,204.50 | $1,684 |
If you are running payment math on a specific house, use the assessment on the tax card, not the asking price — they are frequently different, and after a revaluation year they can be different by a lot. Manufactured homes are taxed as real estate in New Hampshire whether or not you own the pad underneath, which catches buyers out; our guide to mobile and manufactured homes covers how that works. Our guide to buying a home in Plymouth covers what those houses cost; this guide covers what holding them costs.
Why Plymouth's rate is one of the highest around here
This is the question we get most often, and the answer has three parts. None of them is "Plymouth is badly run."
1. About a quarter of Plymouth's real estate is tax-exempt. Plymouth State University's campus is state property, exempt under RSA 72:23, and it shares roughly 28 square miles with Speare Memorial Hospital, the high school and elementary school, the district court, town buildings, the water and sewer district and the usual churches and nonprofits.
The town's 2025 revaluation file (published by the Assessing Department on September 19, 2025, values as of April 1, 2025) lists 2,563 parcels carrying $1.135 billion. By our tally of that file, exempt owners hold roughly $272 million — about 24%:
| Exempt owner (2025 revaluation file) | Assessed value |
|---|---|
| Plymouth State University / University System of NH (29 parcels) | $178.9 million |
| Speare Memorial Hospital | $27.6 million |
| Plymouth Regional High School / Pemi-Baker district | $16.4 million |
| Churches | $12.8 million |
| Town of Plymouth (50 parcels) | $10.3 million |
| Plymouth School District | $8.8 million |
| Village Water and Sewer District | $4.9 million |
| Grafton County | $3.8 million |
The DRA set the 2025 rate on a net taxable valuation of $791,255,910 ($816,145,510 with utilities). Exempt property does not lower the levy; it concentrates it on a smaller base, and a smaller base under the same levy means a higher rate per $1,000. That is the single biggest structural reason Plymouth's rate sits above Campton's and Thornton's. What carries the load instead is the Tenney Mountain Highway retail strip and the in-town rental stock — the largest taxable parcel in town is the Walmart at 683 Tenney Mountain Highway, assessed at $17.0 million, which is why Plymouth's commercial property and zoning decisions get close attention. (The exempt total is our count from the town's preliminary parcel file, not the official MS-1 inventory, which the Assessing Department can provide.)
2. Plymouth is the service center for a much larger area than its 6,700 residents. The downtown, the hospital, the university and two I-93 exits mean police, fire, ambulance and highway budgets are sized for the town that shows up by day, not the town that sleeps there. That is also why Plymouth has the amenities people move here for — see our guide to living in and moving to Plymouth NH and things to do in Plymouth.
3. The school rate reflects taxable base per student, not spending per student. Plymouth is in SAU 48 with Campton, Ellsworth, Holderness, Rumney, Thornton, Waterville Valley and Wentworth, and those towns fund the Pemi-Baker Regional district and Plymouth Regional High School together. Holderness (Squam Lake frontage) and Waterville Valley (a resort's worth of condominiums) have huge grand lists and send few students; the same school dollar spread over a bigger base produces a smaller rate. Our Plymouth vs Campton vs Thornton comparison sets out what each town gives you for its rate.
The equalization ratio and why comparing raw rates is a trap
The most common mistake buyers make is to compare two towns' rates and stop. A rate means nothing without knowing what fraction of market value the town assesses at.
The DRA measures that every year by comparing arm's-length sale prices with the assessments on the same properties, and publishes an equalization ratio for every municipality. Plymouth's 2024 equalization ratio was 80.2% (DRA 2024 Equalization Survey) — assessments averaged about 80 cents on the market dollar. The town's own notice of its 2025 update put the 2024 sales-to-assessment ratio at 81.8%, the same story.
The ratio drifts between revaluations: 98.8% in the 2018 revaluation year, 89.1% in 2019, 89.2% in 2020, 77.4% in 2021 and 57.3% by 2022, when the rate peaked at $31.44. The 2023 revaluation snapped it back to 95.1%.
What that did to a 2024 bill:
- A Plymouth house assessed at $450,000 in 2024 was, on average, worth about $561,000 on the open market ($450,000 ÷ 0.802).
- The 2024 rate was $25.12 per $1,000 of assessed value — but against real market value that worked out to about $20.15 per $1,000 ($25.12 × 0.802).
- So the effective rate a 2024 Plymouth buyer paid on what they actually paid for the house was roughly $20.15, not $25.12. The DRA's own published full-value tax rate for Plymouth in 2024 — computed on total equalized valuation rather than by multiplying through a single ratio — is $20.09, the same answer to within six cents.
Then Plymouth ran a revaluation update for 2025, bringing assessments to April 1, 2025 market value, and the rate fell $1.35 to $23.77. A falling rate is not a tax cut: the assessments underneath it rose. A revaluation raises no money; it redistributes the same levy. If your assessment rose more than the town average, your bill went up even though the rate went down.
The practical rule: never compare two New Hampshire towns on nominal rate alone. Compare the bill on the actual assessment, or use the DRA's full-value tax rate (rate × equalization ratio, in effect), which is in the comparison table below.
The revaluation cycle and what happens to a bill after one
RSA 75:8-a requires every New Hampshire city and town to reappraise all taxable property at full and true value at least once in every five years. In between, assessors run statistical updates when the market has moved far enough that the ratio has drifted.
Plymouth's recent history, reported by the town:
| Tax year | Town | Local school | State education | County | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $9.98 | $11.36 | $2.23 | $1.73 | $25.30 |
| 2019 | $10.44 | $13.87 | $1.83 | $2.05 | $28.19 |
| 2020 | $11.40 | $13.32 | $1.81 | $1.96 | $28.49 |
| 2021 | $12.06 | $14.72 | $2.00 | $1.71 | $30.49 |
| 2022 | $13.28 | $15.14 | $1.36 | $1.66 | $31.44 |
| 2023 | $11.09 | $10.89 | $1.22 | $1.18 | $24.38 |
| 2024 | $10.93 | $11.77 | $1.35 | $1.07 | $25.12 |
| 2025 | $9.97 | $11.55 | $1.10 | $1.15 | $23.77 |
The 2018–2024 rows come from the Town of Plymouth's 2024 tax rate release; the 2025 row is the DRA's. The 2022-to-2023 drop — $31.44 to $24.38 — cut nobody's taxes by 22%: the 2023 revaluation lifted the taxable base from roughly $495 million to about $739 million under a similar levy.
What this means for a buyer:
- A low rate in a revaluation year is not a bargain, and a high rate late in a cycle is not a penalty. Look at the bill.
- After a revaluation, check your assessment against your purchase price. Paid $420,000 and assessed at $510,000? You have an argument (see abatements below).
- Know where the town is in its cycle. Plymouth revalued in 2004, 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023 and ran a statistical update for 2025; on that rhythm and the RSA 75:8-a five-year rule, the next full revaluation is due by the 2028 tax year.
Semi-annual billing, the July estimate and the December true-up
Plymouth bills semi-annually under RSA 76:15-a, and the two bills are different kinds of thing.
| First bill | Second bill | |
|---|---|---|
| Mailed | By mid-June | After the DRA sets the rate (Dec 9 for 2025) |
| Due | July 1 | About 30 days after mailing — read the date on the bill |
| How it's computed | Prior year's assessment × half the prior year's rate | Full year at the new rate on the new assessment, minus the July payment |
| What it means | An estimate | The true-up — larger if the rate or your assessment rose |
What late costs. Under RSA 76:13 unpaid taxes accrue 8% a year from the due date (a bill mailed between November 2 and April 1 starts accruing 30 days after mailing). Once the collector records a tax lien, redemption costs 14% a year on the whole lien under RSA 80:69, plus costs. If you pay the town directly rather than through escrow, calendar both bills.
Owners 65 or older, or eligible for Social Security disability, can also ask for a tax deferral under RSA 72:38-a: deferred tax accrues 5% interest and is capped at 85% of the home's equity. It is a lien, not forgiveness, but a real option for a house-rich, cash-poor owner.
Plymouth takes payments online through the town website and at the Tax Collector's counter, 6 Post Office Square, (603) 536-4733.
How to read a Plymouth tax card and find it online
The "tax card" — properly, the property record card — is the assessor's file on a parcel, and it is a public record. Plymouth's parcel data and tax maps are online through AxisGIS at axisgis.com/PlymouthNH, where you can search by owner, address or map-and-lot; the Assessing Department will print or email the full card for any parcel if you ask.
In a revaluation or update year Plymouth posts every preliminary value before the bills go out — sorted by owner, location and map-and-lot, with the qualified sales the assessor used — and holds informal review appointments. For the 2025 update the lists went up September 19, 2025, with appointments September 25–26 and September 29–October 1. That is the cheapest moment to fix a value: before the rate is set and without filing anything. (The 2023 revaluation was run by Whitney Consulting Group; the 2025 update was done in-house.)
What is on it, and what to check:
- Map and lot, and acreage. Compare against the deed and the survey. Acreage errors are more common than you would think on rural Plymouth parcels, and they move the land value.
- Land value and building value, listed separately. In Plymouth the land line is driven by the site, the zone, road frontage and utilities. A lot inside the Plymouth Village Water and Sewer District carries a different land value than an unserviced lot on a class VI road up Plymouth Mountain or the back of Texas Hill. Condominium units — the Boulder Point and Riverside Landing buildings, the Town West and Hamilton Way clusters — show no land line at all, only building and feature value, so there is nothing on the card to sanity-check the site against.
- Living area, and how it was measured. Assessors work from exterior dimensions and a sketch. Finished basement space, an enclosed porch counted as heated living area, or a second full bath that does not exist are the classic errors.
- Grade and condition codes. These are the assessor's judgment of construction quality and current state. A house that was "average/good" before the roof and the heating system failed is a legitimate conversation.
- Style, year built, and any additions or permits picked up. Permits are how assessors learn about changes; an unpermitted finish that got picked up anyway should be checked.
- Exemptions and credits applied, and whether any land is enrolled in current use.
- The sales history. The card shows prior transfers and their prices, which is the fastest way to see whether the town's value tracks the market on that particular house.
Pull the card before you write an offer, not after you close. It takes ten minutes and it tells you the carrying cost of the house you are about to bid on. If you are selling, the card matters for a different reason — it is the first thing a buyer's agent looks at, and an inflated assessment scares buyers. Our Plymouth seller page, the Plymouth NH home-selling guide and a current home valuation will tell you how the assessment compares to what the house will actually bring.
The abatement process and the March 1 deadline
If you believe your assessment is wrong, New Hampshire gives you a specific, time-limited remedy under RSA 76:16. The Town of Plymouth prints the same sequence in its annual tax rate notice.
- File by March 1. Apply in writing to the selectboard/assessor by March 1 following the December bill, on the standard form from the Board of Tax and Land Appeals, hand-delivered or postmarked to the Assessor's office. Miss it and you wait a year.
- The town answers by July 1. The selectboard grants or denies in writing; silence counts as a denial.
- Appeal by September 1. Go to the Board of Tax and Land Appeals or Grafton County Superior Court — not both.
What actually wins an abatement. The question is not whether your taxes feel high. It is whether your assessment exceeds market value, or exceeds the level at which comparable properties in town are assessed. Evidence that works:
- A recent arm's-length purchase price for the property itself, if you bought at or below the assessment in a normal marketed sale. This is the strongest single piece of evidence there is.
- A licensed appraisal with an effective date of April 1 of the tax year in question. April 1 is the assessment date in New Hampshire; an appraisal dated in October is answering a different question.
- Comparable sales, adjusted, in the same town — not the same county.
- Factual errors on the tax card. Wrong square footage, a bathroom that is not there, acreage that contradicts the survey, a garage that burned down. These are the easiest wins because they are not matters of opinion.
- Assessment inequity. Your house is assessed at 100% of market while similar houses on your street sit at 80%. This takes work and a spreadsheet, but the ratio study makes it a real argument.
The math on whether it is worth it. At Plymouth's 2025 rate, every $10,000 of assessment removed saves $237.70 a year. A $50,000 reduction is $1,188.50 a year, and it persists until the next revaluation. If you think you are over-assessed by $50,000 or more, the application costs you an afternoon and a stamp and is clearly worth filing. If the gap is $10,000, it probably is not — and a weak abatement application, in a small town where the assessor also sets your neighbors' values, is not a costless thing to file.
Start with a conversation at the counter. In our experience a card error is usually fixed by the assessor without a formal fight; a difference of opinion about value is what the abatement process is for.
Exemptions and credits available in Plymouth
New Hampshire's exemptions and credits are a mix of state statute and local adoption, and this is the part of the system that generates the most bad internet advice. The statutory framework is statewide; the dollar amounts, income limits and asset limits are adopted town by town, so the only number that matters for your house is the one Plymouth has voted. Here is what Plymouth has actually adopted, as reported to the Department of Revenue Administration for the 2024 tax year and cross-checked against the Assessing Department's own handouts.
| Relief | RSA | Plymouth's adopted amount |
|---|---|---|
| Elderly exemption, age 65–74 | 72:39-a | $35,000 off assessed value |
| Elderly exemption, age 75–79 | 72:39-a | $45,000 off assessed value |
| Elderly exemption, age 80+ | 72:39-a | $55,000 off assessed value |
| Veterans' tax credit | 72:28 | $750 off the tax — the maximum through 2026 |
| All veterans' tax credit | 72:28-b | $750 off the tax |
| Surviving spouse tax credit | 72:29-a | $2,000 off the tax |
| Service-connected total disability credit | 72:35 | $2,000 off the tax |
| Blind exemption | 72:37 | $35,000 off assessed value |
| Combat service credit | 72:28-c | not adopted |
| Disabled exemption | 72:37-b | not adopted |
| Deaf exemption | 72:38-b | not adopted |
| Solar, wind and wood-heating systems | 72:62, 72:66, 72:70 | none adopted |
| Battery storage and renewable generation | 72:85, 72:87 | none adopted |
Three of those rows are worth reading twice.
The elderly exemption has income and asset tests, and Plymouth's are tight. Net income, Social Security included, may not exceed $27,500 single or $37,500 married, and net assets may not exceed $60,000 either way, excluding the residence and the land under it up to the greater of two acres or the minimum lot size in the zoning ordinance. An applicant must be 65 on or before April 1 of the tax year and a New Hampshire resident for the three consecutive years before it. At the 2025 rate a $35,000 exemption is worth $831.95 a year and a $55,000 exemption $1,307.35.
Plymouth has taken the veterans' credit to the current statutory ceiling. $750 is the most a town may adopt under RSA 72:28 today, and Plymouth applies the same $750 to the all veterans' credit, which reaches peacetime service. A credit comes off the tax owed, dollar for dollar, not off the assessment. Two updates to watch: HB 1494, signed May 28, 2026, raises the maximums to $1,000 (veterans), $750 (combat service) and $2,500 (surviving spouse) effective April 1, 2027 — but Plymouth's amounts rise only if the town votes to raise them. And a handout still on the town's website shows the older $500 veterans' figure; confirm the current amount with the assessor before you budget on it.
Plymouth has adopted none of the energy exemptions, and it has not adopted the disabled exemption. If you are pricing a solar array, a battery or a wood-heating system here, the value it adds to the property is taxable — and the RSA 72:37-b exemption for a permanently disabled owner is not available either. Both are local options, both are common in other New Hampshire towns, and both are things generic advice will tell you that you have when you do not.
Apply on the DRA's PA-29 permanent application form with the Assessing Department by April 15. And if the house you are buying carries an exemption or credit, it does not transfer to you — the seller's relief comes off the card when the seller leaves. We have watched more than one buyer budget from a bill that included somebody else's exemption.
If price point is the constraint, the Plymouth homes under $500K page and the 03264 zip code page are the two searches that show the most realistic inventory — and at $23.77 per $1,000, the difference between a $400,000 and a $500,000 assessment is $2,377 a year, which is worth putting into the search filter rather than discovering in December.
Current use, briefly, if you are buying acreage
If the parcel comes with real land, ask whether any of it is enrolled in current use under RSA 79-A. Ten acres or more of farmland, forest or unproductive land — or a smaller tract earning at least $2,500 a year from crops — can be assessed at its use value instead of its development value, which drops the tax on the land to a fraction of what it would otherwise be. The house, the outbuildings and the land under them stay at full value. Enrollment runs with the land, so it transfers to you automatically; taking land out triggers a Land Use Change Tax of 10% of the full market value of the acres removed.
It is not a fringe program here: the current-use credit column in the town's 2025 revaluation file totals about $52.5 million — the second-largest thing keeping value off the grand list after the exempt institutions. Our guide to land for sale in Plymouth NH covers what acreage costs here, the buying land in New Hampshire guide covers the diligence, selling land in New Hampshire covers the change-tax trap from the seller's side, and the farms and farmhouses guide goes deepest on current use itself.
Escrow, and why the first year is usually wrong
Nearly every Plymouth buyer with a mortgage escrows taxes, and nearly every one of them gets a shortage letter in year one. At closing your lender funds the escrow account based on the most recent tax bill it can see — which, if you close in the spring or summer, is a July estimate computed on the prior owner's assessment at half the prior year's rate. Then three things happen in your first year:
- The town revalues, or the rate is reset, and the December bill comes in at the current rate on the current assessment.
- Your assessment catches up to your purchase price. If you paid meaningfully more than the assessment, the assessor will often move the value at the next update, and after a town-wide revaluation the move can be large.
- Any exemption or credit the seller carried disappears, as above.
The result is a December bill the escrow account was never sized for. Your servicer runs an annual escrow analysis, finds the shortage, and does two things at once: it spreads the shortfall over the next twelve months and it raises the ongoing monthly deposit to cover the new, higher annual figure. That is how a payment quoted at $2,650 becomes $2,980 fourteen months after closing, with nothing about the loan having changed.
Three ways to avoid the surprise:
- Budget from the rate and the price, not from the seller's bill. Take your purchase price, apply $23.77 per $1,000, divide by twelve, and use that as your monthly tax figure from day one. It is the honest number.
- Ask the lender to fund escrow at the current rate, not at the last bill. Most will if you ask before the closing disclosure is issued.
- Read the proration on the settlement statement. New Hampshire closings prorate the year's taxes between seller and buyer as of the closing date, often using the prior year's bill when the current rate is not yet set, with a reconciliation clause. Know which convention your purchase and sale agreement uses. Our breakdown of who pays closing costs in New Hampshire covers the other side of that ledger, including the state's real estate transfer tax, which is split between buyer and seller at closing.
How Plymouth compares to the towns around it
The rates below are 2025 tax rates from the DRA's 2025 municipal tax rate table, set between October 28 and December 12, 2025 for these towns. As of September 2026 they are still current; 2026 rates are set in late autumn. The "$450,000" column is arithmetic (rate × 450), not a real bill. The last two columns come from the DRA's 2024 Equalization Survey, the latest ratio year we could confirm published as of September 2026.
| Town | 2025 rate per $1,000 | Tax on a $450,000 assessment | 2024 equalization ratio | 2024 DRA full-value rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wentworth | $28.54 | $12,843.00 | 53.3% | — |
| Plymouth | $23.77 | $10,696.50 | 80.2% | $20.09 |
| Ashland | $19.19 | $8,635.50 | 82.0% | $14.99 |
| Campton | $17.46 | $7,857.00 | 93.2% | $15.95 |
| Groton | $15.23 | $6,853.50 | 68.7% | — |
| Rumney | $14.50 | $6,525.00 | 99.6% | $14.32 |
| Bristol | $13.16 | $5,922.00 | 48.8% | $11.49 |
| Lincoln | $12.66 | $5,697.00 | 63.1% | — |
| Thornton | $11.74 | $5,283.00 | 101.1% | $11.47 |
| Waterville Valley | $9.96 | $4,482.00 | 100.9% | $9.11 |
| Holderness | $9.42 | $4,239.00 | 74.7% | $6.42 |
| Hebron | $9.06 | $4,077.00 | 63.2% | — |
| Bridgewater | $6.35 | $2,857.50 | 96.6% | $5.20 |
Wentworth, a fellow SAU 48 town west of Rumney, is the one nearby rate above Plymouth's — and its 53.3% ratio shows why a raw rate misleads. Read the table with three caveats.
First, every town is somewhere different in its revaluation cycle. The rates in column one are nominal rates applied to each town's own assessed values, and those values sit at different fractions of market value — that is what the ratio column measures. The full-value rate in the last column is the DRA's own correction for that: what a town's 2024 tax actually cost per $1,000 of real market value. Plymouth's nominal 2024 rate of $25.12 was a full-value rate of $20.09. Rumney, assessing at 99.6%, was measuring in almost the same units it was charging in; Plymouth, at 80.2%, was not.
Bristol shows what this does to a headline. Its 2024 ratio was 48.8% — assessments at less than half of market — and its 2024 nominal rate was $23.62. Bristol revalued for 2025 and the rate came out at $13.16. Nothing about Bristol got 44% cheaper. The denominator roughly doubled.
One limit on those last two columns: both Plymouth and Bristol revalued for 2025, so their 2025 ratios will land far closer to 100% than the figures shown here. Use the ratio column to understand the gap between towns, not to adjust the 2025 rate arithmetic.
Second, the bottom of the table is explained by waterfront and resort value, not by thrift. Bridgewater has Newfound Lake frontage and few children; Holderness has Squam Lake; Waterville Valley has a ski area and a condominium village. Enormous taxable value, modest municipal and school demand, very low rate. The houses are not cheap. A $6.35 rate on a $1.4 million lake house is $8,890 — more than a $23.77 rate on a $350,000 house in Plymouth.
Third, the bill is what matters, not the rate. $450,000 buys a different house in each town — a solid near-town single family in Plymouth, considerably less in Holderness. For scale, Zillow's typical home value for Plymouth was about $377,000 in August 2026; at the 2025 rate, an assessment at that level pays roughly $8,960 a year.
If the rate difference is enough to move you a town over, read our guide to Plymouth NH neighborhoods first — the in-town village, the Texas Hill and Fairgrounds areas and the rural edges of Plymouth carry very different prices for the same rate, and a cheaper town with a longer commute and a well and septic is not automatically the cheaper answer. The two sub-markets where the assessment and the price diverge most are the streets near the Plymouth State campus, where rental income drives the price (the Plymouth NH rentals guide shows what those units actually lease for), and Tenney Mountain, where the ski area's on-and-off history has left assessments chasing a moving market. Current inventory across the town sits on the Plymouth town page.
The honest trade-off for a buyer coming from Massachusetts
New Hampshire's property tax looks brutal next to a Massachusetts rate sheet because you are comparing one tax against one tax. Take Chelmsford, a normal Route 3 commuter town. In fiscal 2025 Chelmsford's residential rate was $13.90 per $1,000, its average single-family assessed value was $634,510, and its average single-family tax bill was $8,820 — figures from the Chelmsford Board of Assessors' own FY2026 tax classification presentation. Put that same $634,510 assessment in Plymouth at the 2025 rate and the bill is about $15,082. Plymouth costs roughly $6,262 a year more in property tax on the same assessed dollars.
Now add back the taxes New Hampshire does not charge.
- Massachusetts income tax is a flat 5% on most personal income, with a 4% surtax above roughly $1.08 million of taxable income. A household with $150,000 of Massachusetts taxable income pays about $7,500 a year. In New Hampshire that is zero — on wages, on self-employment income, on retirement distributions, on capital gains, and since January 1, 2025 on interest and dividends as well.
- Massachusetts sales tax is 6.25% with no local add-on. A household that spends $25,000 a year on taxable goods pays about $1,562.
On those assumptions the move is roughly $6,262 worse on property tax and roughly $9,000 better on income and sales tax — a net gain of a few thousand dollars a year, before the difference in house price. Change the income and the answer changes: a retired couple with modest taxable income and a large house gets less benefit than a two-earner household with a smaller one. Run your own numbers rather than repeat the slogan. Our moving from MA to NH guide and the New Hampshire cost of living breakdown cover the rest — insurance, heat, vehicle registration, and the things that are genuinely more expensive up here.
One more honest point that the relocation blogs leave out. Massachusetts has Proposition 2½, which caps how fast a municipality's total levy can grow without a ballot override. New Hampshire has no statewide equivalent. A New Hampshire town meeting can raise the levy, and the only structural brake is the voters in the room in March. That cuts both ways — it is why rates here can move several dollars in a year — and it is a reason to read the town warrant and the school district's budget before you buy, not after. They are posted publicly every February.
Sources
- NH Department of Revenue Administration, 2025 Municipal Tax Rates
- NH DRA, 2024 Equalization Survey
- Town of Plymouth Assessing Department: 2024 and 2025 tax rate notices, 2025 revaluation parcel lists (September 19, 2025), exemption handouts
- NH RSAs 72:28, 75:8-a, 76:13, 76:15-a, 76:16 and 79-A; HB 1494 (2026) on veterans' credit maximums
Frequently asked questions
What is the Plymouth NH property tax rate?
Plymouth's 2025 rate is $23.77 per $1,000 of assessed value, set by the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration on December 9, 2025: $9.97 town, $11.55 local school, $1.10 state education and $1.15 Grafton County. The 2024 rate was $25.12. As of September 2026 it is still the current rate; the DRA sets 2026 rates in late autumn.
Why are Plymouth NH property taxes so high?
About a quarter of Plymouth's real estate is tax-exempt — roughly $272 million of $1.135 billion in the town's 2025 revaluation file, with Plymouth State University alone at $178.9 million — so the levy falls on a smaller taxable base. Plymouth also runs services for a region far larger than its 6,700 residents, and the neighbors with low rates have large lake and resort grand lists spread over few students.
When are Plymouth NH property taxes due?
Twice a year. The first bill is mailed by mid-June and due July 1; it is an estimate at half the prior year's rate on the prior year's assessment. The second bill goes out after the DRA sets the rate in the fall and is due about 30 days after mailing, usually in December or January. It applies the new rate to the new assessment and trues up the difference. Use the due date printed on the bill.
How do you find a Plymouth NH tax card?
Plymouth's parcel data and tax maps are online through AxisGIS at axisgis.com/PlymouthNH, searchable by owner, address or map and lot. For the full property record card — land and building values, sketch, living area, grade and condition, exemptions and sales history — contact the Plymouth Assessing Department at 6 Post Office Square, (603) 536-1731 x100. It is a public record.
How do you appeal a Plymouth property assessment?
File a written abatement application with the Plymouth Assessing Department by March 1 following the December tax bill, under RSA 76:16. The selectboard must grant or deny it in writing by July 1, and silence counts as a denial. You may then appeal to the New Hampshire Board of Tax and Land Appeals or to Grafton County Superior Court — one or the other, not both — generally by September 1.
Does a New Hampshire revaluation raise my taxes?
Not by itself. A revaluation redistributes the same levy across updated values; it creates no new revenue. If your assessment rises more than the town average your bill goes up, and if it rises less your bill goes down. Plymouth's 2025 update shows why the headline rate misleads: the rate fell from $25.12 to $23.77 while assessments were brought up to April 1, 2025 market value.
Are there property tax exemptions for seniors or veterans in Plymouth?
Yes. The elderly exemption takes $35,000 off assessed value at 65–74, $45,000 at 75–79 and $55,000 at 80+, with income limits of $27,500 single or $37,500 married and a $60,000 asset limit. The veterans' and all veterans' credits are $750 each; the surviving spouse and total-disability credits are $2,000. File form PA-29 with the Assessing Department by April 15, and confirm current amounts first.
Do property tax exemptions transfer to a buyer?
No. Exemptions and credits are personal to the qualifying owner. If the seller had an elderly exemption or a veterans' credit, it comes off the property when they leave, and your first full-year bill will be higher than the bill you saw during due diligence. Budget from the assessment and the $23.77 rate, not from the seller's tax bill.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice; your attorney and the town assessor have the current answers for a specific property.
Owl's Nest Real Estate works out of Plymouth and Campton, and running the real carrying cost on a house — not the listing-sheet version — is part of how we represent buyers here. If you want the tax picture on a specific Plymouth property before you write an offer, talk to us; we will pull the card with you.