PROGRESS PORTSMOUTH

08/29/2026

Great analysis of revaluation impact on different classes of property, and of course on the taxes property owners pay. Key insight is that residential owners now pay a greater share of the tax pie.

A ninety percent increase on a significant expense is challenging to any household. That is what happened to manufactured homes.

Assessments on manufactured homes, listed as mobile homes in the assessing data, rose 89.9 percent. That is the largest increase of any property class in Portsmouth. It is 265 parcels and a small share of the total levy.

My first post used 1,200 parcels I pulled by hand. I now have all 9,131 taxable parcels. Here is what the full data shows.

Residential went from 59.2 percent of Portsmouth's taxable value to 65.3 percent. Commercial fell from 30.8 to 26.8 percent, industrial from 9.9 to 7.9 percent. Of 9,131 parcels, 7,580 bills went up and 1,551 went down.

I led with hotels last time. The bigger story is office buildings. Twenty five of the city's ninety nine office buildings did not just rise slowly, they lost assessed value outright. One fell from $28.2 million to $15.1 million. For comparison, four of 4,300 single family homes lost value. Office buildings shed about $2.66 million in annual tax. Industrial warehouses shed about $598,000.

I gave you medians. A median hides how much variation is inside a class. 791 residential parcels saw their bill go down. If yours was one of them, nothing I wrote described your situation.

Single family homes had a median increase of 61 percent, but the middle 80 percent ran anywhere from 48 to 80 percent, and 312 homes came in below the 44.3 percent break even and got a cut. Condominiums were wider, 40 to 84 percent, with 384 below break even. It runs the other way too. Sixteen of the 99 office buildings rose enough to pay more.

So your class tells you the odds, not where you specifically ended up.

That said, the classes are not close. 93 percent of single family homes landed above break even against 84 percent of office buildings below it. The overlap is at the edges, not the middle.

If your assessment moved very differently from similar properties near you, that is what the abatement process is for, and the spread is the evidence for that conversation. Records are public and you can look up your neighbors.

Two notes on method. I screened out 96 parcels that changed more than 200 percent. Those are vacant lots built on, subdivisions and conversions rather than revaluation. And I am working from the 2023-2024 file, so abatements and permits since then are not reflected. There is never a perfect snapshot. This is trends in broad strokes.

Thanks to Jim Smalley, who pushed me on the distributions and made the point that single figures only tell part of the story. He was right.

08/26/2026

Portsmouth has all the information and potential solutions it needs to make a difference. The Housing Action Plan -- due to gather public input in September -- goes some of the way, but not far enough. What you need to know is here: www.progressportsmouth.com

Seacoast's skyrocketing rents and home prices lead to rising homelessness, workforce shortages and family members moving away. See link below ⬇️

📸 Deb Cram/Seacoastonline

08/26/2026

Great housing effort up in Portland . . .

08/25/2026

There are many ways to increase housing in Portsmouth while fully protecting the character of our neighborhoods . . .

Affordable housing starts with people willing to build something different. 🏘️

Explore our story on Spruce Street Gardens, a pilot project bringing hands-on development experience together with a mission to create attainable housing for people experiencing homelessness.

🔗 Read the full story in the comments below.

08/04/2026

1-minute survey: tell the city your preferences for future development.

Take the Development Preferences survey for the Portsmouth, NH community.

08/01/2026

Ultra quick guide to the City Council's business on Monday, August 3. https://www.progressportsmouth.com/hubfs/portsmouth-council-digest-2026-08-03.html

07/22/2026

The City heads in the right direction . . . communicating clearly for residents with questions . . .

A motion I made at our last City Council meeting is now live on the city website, a plain language guide that tells you exactly which board handles your project and what to bring.

If you've ever tried to figure out whether your home project needs the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, the Historic District Commission, or some other body entirely, you know how confusing that process can be. Residents shouldn't need a lawyer or a City Hall insider to understand basic questions like which board reviews a fence, an addition, or a subdivision.

That was the problem behind the motion I brought to the Council. The goal was simple: give residents one clear starting point instead of five confusing ones.

That guide is now live on the city website. It walks through each board in plain English, what it does, when you need it, and how to prepare, plus a reminder that a free conversation with Planning staff before you design or apply saves the most time.

This is the part of the job I enjoy most. A neighbor's frustration becomes a motion, the motion becomes a vote, and the vote becomes a tool that makes City Hall a little easier to navigate for everyone. That is local government working the way it should.

portsmouthnh.gov/planportsmouth/residents-guide-land-use-boards