Seaport Advisory

The list price tells you what a home costs to buy. It says nothing about what it costs to own— and in 2026, that second number is where Connecticut buyers get surprised. The same home, one town line apart, can carry a tax bill that differs by well over a thousand dollars a month.

The number most buyers never check

Everyone shopping for a home watches the price. Far fewer ask the question that actually sets the monthly payment: what's the property tax? In Connecticut, the answer comes from the town's mill rate— the dollars of tax charged per $1,000 of assessed value — and it varies more than almost anywhere in the country.

The mechanics are simple. Connecticut assesses every home at 70% of its market value, then applies the local mill rate. A $400,000 home has an assessed value of $280,000; multiply by the mill rate and divide by 1,000 for the annual tax. But because the rate ranges from under 11 mills to nearly 69 across the state, that simple math produces wildly different outcomes town to town.

The same $415,000 home, taxed across Connecticut

Take one home priced at $415,000 — near the statewide median — and drop it into each town without changing anything else. The tax bill is a different animal in every one.

Over a ten-year hold, that gap alone is the difference between about $32,000 and $200,000 handed to the tax collector — on identical houses. It's the single biggest reason we tell buyers to underwrite the tax before they fall for the price.

The part that surprises everyone: cheap to buy often means expensive to own

You'd assume the lowest-priced towns would be the cheapest to live in. Statewide, the opposite is frequently true. Measured as a share of what a home actually sells for — the true effective tax rate— many modest-priced markets carry the heaviest load, while some of the priciest carry the lightest.

The extremes tell the story: Washingtontaxes its homes at just 0.76% of value, the lightest in Connecticut, while Hartfordreaches 4.83%, the heaviest. A dollar of home in Hartford carries more than six times the annual tax it would in Washington. Between those poles sit 166 other towns — and the table below lets you find any of them.

Every Connecticut town, ranked and searchable

Search for your town, filter by county, or sort any column. The bar beside each effective rate shows where that town falls on the statewide scale, from lightest to heaviest.

If you're buying in 2026, watch the revaluation clock

A point of confusion we clear up constantly: your purchase price does not become your assessment.Connecticut doesn't tax you on what you paid. You inherit the town's existing assessment — 70% of appraised value from its last townwide revaluation — and that figure holds for the full five-year cycle.

Buying doesn't trigger a reassessment of your one home. Instead, your sale becomes a comparable the assessor studies at the nexttownwide revaluation — so the price catches up on the town's schedule, not at your closing. The "Next Reval" column above shows exactly when that clock strikes for each town. If yours reads 2026, assessments there are being recalculated to today's market right now.

Our backyard: the southeastern shoreline

Close to home, the shoreline tells a clear story. The premium coastal towns — Lyme, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, Stonington, Essex — carry high prices but remarkably light effective rates, near 1.0–1.3%. You pay more up front, far less to hold. The value markets and cities run the other way: lower entry prices, steeper annual carry.

What this means for your move

If you're buying, put the tax and the revaluation year into your underwriting from day one — not as a surprise at closing. Choosing the right town can be worth thousands a year on the same home. If you're sellingin a low-rate town, that's part of your home's competitive story and belongs in the marketing. And if you're weighing the shoreline against the value towns, know that you're really choosing between a higher entry price with a light annual carry, or a lower entry price with a steeper one.

At Seaport Advisory, we weigh mill rates alongside median price, effective tax rate, revaluation timing, and local affordability to give you the full cost-of-ownership picture across Connecticut — so the home that looks affordable actually is.

Posted by Tim Bray · Seaport Advisory

Mill rates are the official Connecticut Office of Policy and Management FY 2025–2026 primary real property rates (Grand List of October 1, 2024). Median sale prices reflect current Market Pulse data. Revaluation years are from the CT OPM schedule under Public Act 22-74, adjusted for town-level deferrals. Effective rates apply each town's mill rate to its median sale price and will differ for any individual home; special districts can add mills for a specific parcel. Verify any figure with the town assessor. Not tax or legal advice.