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[JasonPSorens]

Want to know which towns have the lowest taxes, no zoning, lowest housing prices or rents, most kids in private school, and highest vote shares for Ron Paul and Andrew Hemingway? Then check out this spreadsheet: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3904587/nhtowns15.xls

Look in the "comment" fields for information on how each variable is constructed and where the data come from.

[freedomroad]

It seems to me that the most important stat is median property taxes.  Where did you get that info?  Looking at some of the cities, like Franklin and Laconia, it looks like you pulled the info from 10 years ago (taxes are likely a lot more now, right?) off of city-data.com or whatever source city-data.com used.  But city-data.com has two sets of numbers from 2008 for some of the places, like Nashua.  And yet your number is very different from that.  This is highly confusing.

City-data.com

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2008: $4,778 (1.7%)
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2008: $4,569 (1.7%)

Your chart

3249

[ny2nh]

Jason -

What year is the voter registration data from?

Tammy

[JasonPSorens]

It seems to me that the most important stat is median property taxes.  Where did you get that info?  Looking at some of the cities, like Franklin and Laconia, it looks like you pulled the info from 10 years ago (taxes are likely a lot more now, right?) off of city-data.com or whatever source city-data.com used.  But city-data.com has two sets of numbers from 2008 for some of the places, like Nashua.  And yet your number is very different from that.  This is highly confusing.

City-data.com

Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with mortgages in 2008: $4,778 (1.7%)
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units with no mortgage in 2008: $4,569 (1.7%)

Your chart

3249

It's from the 2000 Census, so it is somewhat outdated. The Census doesn't, to my knowledge, update this annually, so I'm not sure where city-data.com gets its information.

One way to try to get the property taxes per capita data (from 2008) into more useful form is to regress them on seasonal vacancy rate and percentage of town population working in town, then take the residuals. Those two variables seem to proxy the value of commercial property pretty well, so the residuals will then represent towns that are taxed "abnormally highly." But that's a bit complex for most users.

[JasonPSorens]

Jason -

What year is the voter registration data from?

Tammy

That's from August 2008, so it's slightly outdated (Repubs still ahead slightly), but not too much.

[criff10]

My god...I have spent hours looking for some of these numbers.  Thank you for providing them in an easy to use spread sheet. 

I am, in particular, interested in your source for public assistance rates...and how they determine who gets public assistance.  Do you know if public assistance is ANY type of assistance, or does it denote people that are funded entirely by welfare programs. 

I am kind of neurotic about this issue as it is one of the main reasons I want to leave Michigan with our 15% unemployment rate and our actually incentivizing people not to work.  A classic way to increase unemployment. 

Thanks for the info. 

Chris

[JasonPSorens]

It's also from the U.S. Census, and it is the percentage of households with public assistance income (according to the Census, this includes "general assistance and TANF," but not Social Security, SSI, unemployment compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.).

[garthwaited]

Thank you Jason.

[maxxoccupancy]

The Census also dramatically undercounts privacy oriented libertarian residents (and their info).  Most anti-gov and privacy folks don't send any info in or not enough for the Census Bureau's software to check for double counting.

If folks want to be counted (to help with representation), you can just supply three pieces of info per person (age, gender, relationship to owner, for example), and the software will include the April 1, 2010 status of that house/apt.

It's important to mail something in because liberty-leaning State House districts will find themselves with fewer State Reps--over the next ten years.

Census also does regular statistics year round regarding income and other issues.  The bottom line is that, if you want to benefit from that info, participate.  If you want more proliberty State Reps, send in the form.

[libertymatters]

Yes, thanks Jason, I found some similar info on a website from NH...

Here is 2009 data: http://www.nh.gov/revenue/munc_prop/2009.htm

I am not sure exactly how to read it... scratching my head a little, but its current as of 2009.

I also built a spreadsheet comparing states income, sales and gross receipts taxes among other criteria, and NH and AK have none... though some have reminded me that NH gets income tax in different ways...

[JasonPSorens]

I've updated the NH towns spreadsheet with new data and variables. Here's the link: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jsorens/nhtowns2.xls

In the file you can find info on real estate taxes and prices, poverty rates, commute times, family incomes, and more by town.

[snave]

Great info thank you.

[freedomroad]

For anyone wondering. The state governments keeps the property tax rate info online. Every year, the info is updated. It even includes the additional rates for villages and everything. Here you go

http://www.revenue.nh.gov/munc_prop/property-tax-rates-related-data/index.htm

Property Tax Rates & Related Data > Municipal Services    
 
NH property tax rates are calculated in accordance with RSA 21-J:35 and based on reports submitted by the municipalities.
 
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

[SaveTheClockTower]

Is there an updated link?  The link in the original post is no longer valid.

[JasonPSorens]

Thanks for the heads-up; here is the new link to the updated spreadsheet with Census 2010 data: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jsorens/nhtowns2.xls