Most Montgomery Township listings show the seller's annual property tax, and most buyers carry that figure straight into their monthly budget. In Montgomery, that figure comes from an assessment system the township last reset in 1999. Since then the assessments have drifted unevenly from market value, and The Montgomery News reports that the township is under a county order to revalue. For a buyer, the tax line on the listing describes the current owner's position. It doesn't forecast the buyer's own bill.
That makes due diligence in Montgomery work differently than in a town with current assessments. It also means the headline tax rates, which look steep next to some neighbors, describe the assessment roll more than the actual burden.
A rate of 2.4535 next to a rate of 1.2979, for the same schools
Montgomery Township and Rocky Hill Borough share the Montgomery Township School District. For 2026-27, the district's state budget filing puts Montgomery's total school tax rate at 2.4535 per $100 of assessed value and Rocky Hill's at 1.2979. Read literally, that says a Montgomery homeowner pays nearly twice as much per dollar of house for the same school system.
The gap mostly comes from the assessment roll. Each year the county measures how assessments compare with what properties actually sell for. Somerset County's 2026 equalization table, certified March 10, 2026, puts Montgomery's ratio of assessed value to true market value at 56.24%. Rocky Hill's is 98.75%. Rocky Hill's assessments sit close to market. Montgomery's sit a little above half of it, on average.
The same state filing converts both towns' school rates to market value, which it calls equalized value:
| 2026-27 school tax | Montgomery Township | Rocky Hill Borough |
|---|---|---|
| Total school rate per $100 of assessed value | 2.4535 | 1.2979 |
| Total school rate per $100 of market value | 1.3801 | 1.1830 |
| Assessment-to-market ratio, 2026 | 56.24% | 98.75% |
On an assessed basis the two rates differ by about $1.16 per $100. On a market basis the gap drops to about $0.20 per $100. Montgomery still pays more per dollar of market value for its schools, but the real difference is a fraction of what the printed rates suggest. For a buyer comparing the two towns, the equalized rate is the useful one.
The "average home" in the budget is really a $900,000 house
The township's adopted 2026 budget presentation explains its taxes using an "average assessed home" of $505,749. At the estimated 2026 municipal rate of 0.501, up from 0.480 in 2025, that home pays $2,534.26 in municipal tax. The Montgomery News applied the 2.4535 school rate to the same home and reported $12,408.55 in school taxes for the year, up $727.
At the township's 56.24% ratio, a $505,749 assessment works out to roughly $900,000 of market value. Rocky Hill's average assessed home, $645,896, sits at roughly $654,000 of market value under its ratio. The larger assessment number belongs to the smaller house.
The drift is still widening. Between the 2025 and 2026 equalization tables, Montgomery's total true value rose from about $6.76 billion to about $7.19 billion, an increase of about 6.5%. Total assessed value stayed essentially flat at just over $4.04 billion, and the ratio fell from 59.97% to 56.24%. Each year without a revaluation, the roll moves further from what houses sell for.
The 56% is an average, and the spread around it matters most
A uniform ratio would cause little harm. If every house were assessed at 56% of its value, everyone would pay a fair share and only the printed rate would look odd. The Montgomery News laid out why that isn't the case in a May 2025 column on the upcoming revaluation:
"So, after two decades of doing nothing, we have areas of town assessed at only 40% to 50% of market value while others are at 70% to 80%. This inconsistency means some property owners are currently paying too much or not enough in taxes."
The same column gives the history. After the 1999 revaluation, Montgomery joined the county's annual program, which revalued one-fifth of the town each year on a rotating basis. The township withdrew from that program in 2004. Since then, the parts of town that appreciated fastest have fallen furthest below market on the roll.
Here is what that spread does to two houses that would each sell for $1,000,000. The arithmetic uses only the 2026 municipal rate and the 2026-27 school rate, a combined 2.9545 per $100 of assessed value, and leaves out county and fire district taxes:
- A house assessed at 45% of market, or $450,000, pays about $13,295 in school and municipal tax.
- A house assessed at 75% of market, or $750,000, pays about $22,159.
- The same two houses after a revaluation would carry roughly the same bill. If the current levies were spread evenly over market value, that bill would be about $16,600 on each house.
Same price, same school district, same township services, and a gap of nearly $9,000 a year in these two taxes alone, set by where each house falls on a 27-year-old roll. A buyer who budgets from the first house's tax bill may have underestimated their future cost. A buyer who passes on the second house because of its bill may have walked away from a carrying cost that a revaluation would bring down.
A revaluation shifts the bills. It doesn't raise the total.
The tax roll only decides how the bill is split. Each year the township committee, the school board, the county and the fire district adopt budgets. Each tax rate is that year's levy divided by the total assessed value. As the 2025 column put it, if assessed values doubled overnight, the rate would be cut in half and the total collected would stay the same.
So the revaluation changes how the bill is divided among properties, and the budgets set the overall size of the bill. Both are moving. The school board approved a 2026-27 budget with a 6.37% tax-levy increase and still had to cut $4.4 million districtwide. The municipal rate rose 4.39%. A buyer's future bill depends on both: annual budget growth that applies to everyone, and a one-time reshuffle that applies to each house differently.
The usual rule of thumb for a township-wide revaluation is that a third of owners pay more, a third pay less, and a third see little change. The column's author, Ed Trzaska, suggested that after so many years Montgomery could see an unusual pattern, both in how many owners are affected and in the size of the changes.
When the reset arrives is still open
Here is the public record as of early October 2026:
- May 2025. The Montgomery News reported that township officials had agreed to a township-wide revaluation. Field work was expected in 2027 and new values would be used for 2028 taxes, with a possible one-year delay.
- February 10, 2026. Somerset County Board of Taxation minutes listed Montgomery's revaluation for 2028.
- March 12, 2026. Mayor Neena Singh asked the County Tax Board to extend the revaluation order to tax year 2030.
- April 14, 2026. The Board moved the two-year extension request to its June agenda and still listed Montgomery's revaluation at 2028.
- As of now. The county's posted 2026 minutes run through April. No public decision on the extension has appeared, and no revaluation firm has been publicly named.
For someone buying in 2026, the new values will most likely arrive within the first few years of ownership. That could be 2028 or later, depending on the extension. It is a near-term planning item for a buyer, not a distant one. The revaluation is also expected to include exterior and interior inspections of every property, carried out by the revaluation company rather than township staff.
How to use this in an offer
The September market leaves room for this kind of homework. A Somerset County market report published October 5 counted 72 active listings in Montgomery, 18 that went under contract in the prior month, and roughly four months of supply. Before committing to a specific Montgomery house, it helps to gather three figures:
- The current assessment divided by your expected purchase price. A result well below 56% suggests the house is under-assessed compared with the township average. A result well above it suggests the opposite.
- A market-value tax estimate alongside the seller's actual bill. Montgomery's equalized school rate for 2026-27 is 1.3801 per $100 of market value, or about $13,800 in school tax on a $1,000,000 house if it were assessed like the township average.
- The gap between those two numbers. That gap is roughly how far the bill could move when new values take effect, before any budget growth.
These estimates help with budgeting. They aren't tax projections for a particular property. The township tax assessor's office can confirm a parcel's current assessment, and a tax professional can address a specific situation.
A few straight answers
Does Montgomery's higher printed rate mean it's the more expensive town for taxes? Not by as much as the rate suggests. Measured against market value, Montgomery's 2026-27 school rate is 1.3801 per $100 compared with Rocky Hill's 1.1830, much closer than the assessed rates of 2.4535 and 1.2979.
Will my assessment change when I buy? Montgomery isn't currently in an annual reassessment program, so a sale doesn't reset assessments across the township the way a revaluation would. For how a particular parcel will be handled, ask the township assessor.
Will the revaluation raise everyone's taxes? The revaluation itself redistributes the levy. Total collections are set by the annual budgets, which rose in 2026 regardless.
If you're weighing a Montgomery Township home and want its assessment, its likely post-revaluation range and its place in the current market worked out before you make an offer, Maura Mills can run those numbers with you. Request a Personalized Consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
