A family sells their colonial in North Andover, ready to trade Massachusetts income tax withholding for the open acreage of southern New Hampshire. They have run the math on the mortgage, the commute, the school calendars. They have not run the math on the closing disclosure. Then it arrives, and the New Hampshire side of the ledger has a line item nobody mentioned at the open house: a transfer tax that costs more than anything they paid to sell in Massachusetts.
This is the part of the North Andover to Windham or Londonderry move that the "no income tax" branding never quite covers. New Hampshire is genuinely lighter on taxes in some ways and heavier in others, and the heavier ways tend to show up exactly when a family is least prepared for them: at the closing table and in the first property tax bill.
The Line Item Nobody Budgets For
Massachusetts charges a deed excise tax on the sale of real estate, set under state law at $4.56 per $1,000 of the sale price, or 0.456 percent. By custom, the seller pays it and the buyer doesn't see it at all. On a $649,000 North Andover sale, that tax runs about $2,959, deducted from the seller's proceeds.
New Hampshire's real estate transfer tax works differently. Under RSA 78-B, both the buyer and the seller each owe $0.75 per $100 of the sale price, a combined rate of 1.5 percent split down the middle. On a $723,300 Windham purchase, the buyer alone owes roughly $5,425, and the seller on the other side of that same closing owes a matching $5,425.
Put those two numbers next to each other. The buyer moving into Windham pays nearly double, on their own, what the entire Massachusetts deed excise tax cost the seller leaving North Andover. New Hampshire's combined transfer tax rate is regularly cited as one of the highest in the country, and it is levied on both sides of every transaction, not just one.
None of this is hidden. It is published in NH Department of Revenue Administration guidance and in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 64D. It is just rarely the first thing anyone mentions when they describe New Hampshire as the tax-friendly state, because the framing usually stops at income tax and sales tax, both of which New Hampshire genuinely does not have.
What the Actual Tax Bills Say
The transfer tax is a one-time cost. The property tax bill is not, and it tells a more complicated story than "New Hampshire has no income tax, so of course it's more expensive to own." As of today, the figures below reflect the most recently finalized rate in each town. Massachusetts sets fiscal year rates in the fall, and New Hampshire's Department of Revenue Administration certifies each town's new tax year rate in the fall as well, so all three of these numbers will roll forward again before the end of the year. Even with that caveat, North Andover's own residential rate is currently lower than either New Hampshire town's.
| Town | Most recently set rate | Tax rate per $1,000 | Illustrative annual bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Andover, MA | Fiscal year 2026 | $11.24 | About $7,295 on a $649,000 home |
| Windham, NH | 2025 tax year | $14.15 | About $10,234 on a $723,300 home (town's own median value) |
| Londonderry, NH | 2025 tax year | $14.47 | About $8,465 on a $585,000 home (town's own median value) |
These are three different towns with three different median home values, so this is not a same-house comparison. It is a same-family comparison: what a household actually writes a check for, given what a typical home costs in each place. And even accounting for that, the pattern holds. North Andover's rate per $1,000 of assessed value is meaningfully below either New Hampshire town's, and New Hampshire's own official pages confirm both rates directly: Windham's tax rate assessments page lists $14.15 per $1,000 for the 2025 tax year, and Londonderry's tax rate and equalization ratio records show a comparable pattern.
A family moving from that $649,000 North Andover home into the $723,300 median Windham home isn't just buying a bigger, pricier house. They're buying into an annual tax bill nearly $3,000 higher, on top of the transfer tax gap they already paid at closing.
Why the Rates Run in Different Directions
The reason isn't that New Hampshire towns spend more per household. It's that New Hampshire funds nearly everything, schools, roads, town services, out of property tax and the real estate transfer tax, because there is no income tax or sales tax to draw on instead. Massachusetts communities have another lever available in theory: state law lets a city or town shift a larger share of its total tax levy onto commercial and industrial property, keeping the residential rate lower. Neighboring Andover uses this to real effect, leaning on its industrial corridor along I-93 to hold its own residential rate down. North Andover's commercial base is smaller by comparison, which typically means its homeowners carry a larger share of the town's levy, not a smaller one. Yet North Andover's residential rate still comes in below Windham's and Londonderry's.
That points to something more basic than the commercial tax base argument alone. New Hampshire towns have no income tax or sales tax revenue at all to lean on, so every dollar a town needs has to come from property owners and from the transfer tax charged at the moment a property changes hands. Massachusetts towns, even ones like North Andover with a modest commercial base, are still drawing from a different mix of state and local revenue overall. It is worth remembering when a buyer assumes a lower nominal tax rate in one town automatically means a cheaper town to live in. The rate is one input. The assessed value it gets multiplied against is the other, and that is where New Hampshire's lower home prices in some corridors can partly offset a higher rate, and where a Merrimack Valley town's higher prices can partly offset a lower one.
The Trade You're Actually Making
None of this means New Hampshire is the more expensive choice in every sense. The math above covers a specific moment: the sale, the purchase, and the first year of ownership. It does not cover what happens across a career.
New Hampshire has no state tax on wages, and no state-level capital gains tax on the sale of a home. A family's exposure on the profit from selling a house is federal only, and most sellers fall under the federal exemption of $250,000 in gain for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, meaning many sales owe nothing at all in that category regardless of which state the home sits in. Massachusetts does tax wage income at the state level. Over years of earning a paycheck while living in New Hampshire instead of Massachusetts, that gap can add up to far more than a few thousand dollars in transfer tax or a higher annual property tax bill.
The honest way to frame the decision, then, isn't "which state is cheaper." It's a question of time horizon. The closing table and the first tax bill favor Massachusetts in this specific comparison. The long run, for a household with steady income and a career ahead of it, can favor New Hampshire. Which one matters more depends on how long you plan to stay, how much you earn, and what your accountant says about your specific numbers, not a blog post. This isn't tax advice, and a family weighing a cross-border move should run their own figures with a tax professional before deciding anything.
Before You List or Write an Offer
A few things worth confirming before either side of this move gets underway:
- Pull the current fiscal year or tax year rate directly from the town, since New Hampshire towns reset rates each fall and Massachusetts towns reset on a July fiscal year. A rate you saw online six months ago may already be out of date.
- Ask your closing attorney to itemize the transfer tax on both sides of the transaction before you sign anything, not after.
- Compare the annual tax bill on the specific home you're buying, not the town average, since assessed value varies street to street.
- If you're selling in Massachusetts and buying in New Hampshire in the same window, factor both the deed excise tax on the sale and the split transfer tax on the purchase into your total cash-to-close, not just one or the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is New Hampshire's transfer tax split negotiable? The 50/50 split between buyer and seller is the default under RSA 78-B, but it isn't mandatory. The purchase and sale contract can allocate it differently if both parties agree, though this is more common in a slower market than a competitive one.
Do these tax rates change before I close? New Hampshire towns set new rates each fall, and Massachusetts towns set new fiscal year rates around the same time. If you're closing in late fall or winter, ask whether the town has finalized its next rate yet, since the number you budgeted on may shift before you sign.
Crossing the Merrimack is rarely just a matter of packing boxes. It's a shift between two very different ways of funding a town, and the numbers move in more than one direction depending on which part of the transaction you're looking at. If you're weighing a move between North Andover and southern New Hampshire, or selling on one side of that line to buy on the other, Rebecca Curran Realty holds active licensure in both states and can walk through the real numbers on your specific home and your specific timeline. Start with a current valuation on your North Andover property and get a clear picture of what the whole move actually costs, not just the sale price.
