Property Tax Rate in Connecticut

By Skyline Capital Investments · Updated October 26, 2026 · 7 min read

What is the property tax rate in Connecticut?

The property tax rate in Connecticut averages 1.54% of market value for owner-occupied homes (Tax Foundation 2026, using the 2024 American Community Survey). On the same measure, New Jersey is at 1.88%, New York 1.30% and Massachusetts 1.00%, so only New Jersey is higher among its neighbors.

Your bill is set by your town. Connecticut has no county government, so there is no county levy; the town, and in some places a fire, sewer or special services district, sets a mill rate each year. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessment, and the Office of Policy and Management gives the formula as assessment times mill rate divided by 1,000.

How Connecticut sets the assessment

By statute, the assessment is not the full value. Section 12-62a of the General Statutes sets assessments at a uniform 70% of present true and actual value, as of the town’s last revaluation, so a building valued at $2,000,000 in the last revaluation is assessed at about $1,400,000.

Each town assessor values property as of October 1, the grand list date, and the mill rate for a fiscal year is based on the grand list from two years earlier. Fiscal year 2027 rates, on bills from July 2026, use the October 1, 2025 grand list.

Values change mainly through revaluation, when the town updates every property to market at once. Hartford’s last revaluation was for the October 1, 2021 grand list, and its next is scheduled for October 1, 2026. Towns can phase in a revaluation: Norwalk finalized one on February 29, 2024 and is spreading the change over four years, with bills in July 2026 and January 2027 reflecting the third year.

For apartment buildings, rents and expenses drive value, and the state requires owners of rental property to report both to the assessor every year.

Highest and lowest Connecticut mill rates

Fiscal year 2027 real property mill rates in the state’s mill rate dataset, which the Office of Policy and Management links to, show how wide the range is. Hartford’s rate is roughly seven times Greenwich’s.

• Rates apply to the assessment, not the price, and assessments in each town reflect its last revaluation, so compare bills, not rates alone.
• Some cities have district rates. Norwalk’s town row shows 32 mills, with taxing district rates of about 23 to 24.7 mills; Stamford’s districts run about 24.3 to 25.1 mills.
• Motor vehicles are taxed at no more than 32.46 mills statewide, which is why Hartford’s car rate is far below its real estate rate.

Mill rate or effective rate: which to use

A mill rate tells you the tax per $1,000 of assessment; an effective rate tells you the tax as a share of what the building is worth. To turn one into the other, divide the tax bill by the market value.

Take a building worth $2,000,000 with a $1,400,000 assessment, the 70% level the statute sets. In New Haven its tax of $55,947 is about 2.8% of value. In Greenwich the same assessment costs $14,175, about 0.71% of value, and in Hartford $97,930, about 4.9%. Those figures are far above the 1.54% statewide average for homes, which mixes high-rate cities with low-rate towns and owner-occupied houses with a range of assessment levels.

Use the effective rate to compare towns and to underwrite a purchase. Use the mill rate and your field card to check your own bill.

Special taxing districts

Some Connecticut properties pay a second rate to a fire, sewer, borough or special services district, or pay a district rate instead of a single town rate. Greenwich lists dozens of small districts with add-on rates from zero to about 9.3 mills. Stamford Downtown’s special services district adds 1.39 mills, and Norwalk’s taxing districts carry rates between about 13 and 24.7 mills.

Check which district your parcel is in before you compare towns. The state dataset lists each district separately, and a building on one side of a district line can pay a different total from its neighbor.

When Connecticut property taxes are due

Norwalk, for example, bills in July and January, with taxes due July 1 and January 1, and interest on a late payment runs from the due date, not from the end of the one-month grace period. Check your own town’s schedule with the tax collector. A buyer and seller prorate the current bill at closing, so know which installment has been paid, and make sure the payoff letter covers any district tax billed separately from the town tax.

Does a sale trigger reassessment in Connecticut?

No. A sale does not change your assessment in Connecticut; the assessment stays as it is until the town’s next revaluation or a successful appeal. The buyer inherits your assessment and your mill rate.

The risk for a buyer is timing. Buy just before a revaluation and the next grand list can reset the building to something near the price paid. Hartford’s scheduled October 1, 2026 revaluation is an example: a building bought there in 2025 or 2026 at a price well above its 2021-based assessment should be underwritten with a higher tax bill from the 2026 grand list on.

Are there caps on property tax increases in Connecticut?

Connecticut has no statewide cap on real property assessments or bills. The only statewide rate cap in the data is the 32.46-mill limit on motor vehicles. Towns can soften a revaluation by phasing it in, as Norwalk has, but that is a local choice. Ask the assessor whether a phase-in is in effect for your parcel, because it changes the bill a buyer will see in the years after closing.

The annual income and expense report

Owners of rental property must file an annual income and expense report with the assessor under section 12-63c of the General Statutes. The assessor uses the rents and expenses to value the building on the income approach.

The statute sets the deadline at June 1, and the assessor may extend it to July 1 for good cause if you ask by June 1. Failing to file, or filing an incomplete or false report with intent to defraud, brings a penalty equal to a 10% increase in the assessed value for that year. Hartford’s 2025 report was due on or before June 1, 2026, with the penalty added to the July 2026 bill. Hartford exempts residential property of not more than six units where the owner lives. The town keeps the actual figures confidential, and they are not public records.

Skipping the report is an expensive mistake: on a $1,400,000 Hartford assessment, a 10% penalty adds $140,000 of assessment and $9,793 of tax at 69.95 mills.

How to appeal your assessment in Connecticut

You appeal first to your town’s Board of Assessment Appeals under section 12-111 of the General Statutes, by written application. In Hartford the deadline for the October 1, 2025 grand list was February 20, 2026, with hearings scheduled through March 2026.

• File the town’s board of assessment appeals form by the deadline; Hartford’s form warns that the board does not have to hear an incomplete application.
• Bring the income and expense data you filed, current rent rolls, and an appraisal or comparable sales.
• Appeal in the year after a revaluation if the new value is high, because the value carries forward until the next one.
• If the board does not grant relief, a further appeal goes to court; ask an attorney about the deadline.

Property tax exemptions for Connecticut apartments

State relief programs, such as the Office of Policy and Management’s renters’ rebate for elderly and disabled renters, help residents, not investor-owned buildings. Local programs can help owners. Hartford, for example, offers a blighted assessment deferral program that reduces the annual assessment for a blighted building that is rehabilitated. Ask the assessor in your town what deferral programs exist before a major renovation, not after.

Worked example: property tax on a $2M Connecticut apartment building

Suppose an 18-unit building that sells for $2,000,000 is carried on the grand list at an assessment of $1,400,000. In New Haven at 39.962 mills, the yearly tax is $55,947. The same assessment would cost $97,930 in Hartford, $65,478 in West Hartford and $14,175 in Greenwich.

Now say the New Haven building’s assessment is still $1,050,000 from an older revaluation, so today’s bill is $41,960. If the next revaluation lifts the assessment to $1,400,000, the tax rises by $13,987 a year at the same mill rate.

A buyer feels that as lost net operating income. At a 6.5% cap rate, $13,987 of NOI is worth about $215,180, which is why buyers in Connecticut ask when the next revaluation is and price it in.

How property tax affects your sale price

In a town with a high mill rate, property tax is one of the largest operating expenses, and every dollar of it comes straight out of NOI. Two buildings with the same rents can be worth very different amounts on either side of a town line. Before you list, pull your assessment, the date of the town’s next revaluation and the last three income and expense reports you filed, since a buyer’s underwriting will start there.

Selling an apartment building in Connecticut

Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Connecticut. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines. We look at the assessment and revaluation schedule up front, so the price you agree to holds through closing.

For the tax on your gain, see Connecticut capital gains tax on real estate, and for deferring it, our page on the 1031 exchange in Connecticut.