Guest Blogger: New Hampshire’s property-tax game has turned into legalized home seizure — and RSA 75:1 is the rulebook they’re using to do it.

By Francis Gauthier
12/11/2025
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How “market value” becomes a weapon

RSA 75:1 tells towns to tax property based on “full and true value” — which assessors and consultants now translate as speculative “market value.”

That sounds technical, but here’s what it means in real life:

• Your town looks at what the hottest house on your street just sold for
• They decide your home — even if it’s 50 years old, paid off, and on a fixed-income owner — is suddenly “worth” that much too.
• They raise your assessment to match the new “market,” and your tax bill jumps hundreds or thousands of dollars a year… even though your income hasn’t gone up by a single penny.

You didn’t sell your house.
You didn’t cash out any gain.
You didn’t realize a dime of profit.

But the town taxes you as if you did.

That’s not taxation on income or use. That’s a forced wealth tax on unrealized, hypothetical gains — aimed straight at homeowners who’ve done nothing but stay put and pay their bills.


“House rich, cash poor” – and one step from a tax lien

This is the trap:

1. You spend 30–40 years paying off the mortgage.
2. You finally own your home outright.
3. The housing market goes crazy, prices spike, and your “paper value” doubles.
4. The town reassesses, and your tax bill skyrockets.
5. Your Social Security, pension, or paycheck doesn’t even come close to keeping up.

Now you’re “house rich, cash poor.” On paper you’re sitting on a valuable asset; in reality you’re staring at a tax bill you can’t afford.Miss enough payments and what happens?

• The town slaps a tax lien on your property.
• Interest and penalties pile up.
• Eventually they can take the deed and auction your home off to cover the taxes.

You spent your life paying for that house — but under this system, the town acts like the real owner and you’re just the renter. Stop paying “rent” (property tax), and they kick you out.

That’s not freedom. That’s serfdom with paperwork.

Driving lifelong residents out of their own neighborhoods

Who gets hit hardest?

• Retirees who planned to age in place, suddenly crushed by $1,000–$3,000 annual tax hikes they never planned for.
• Blue-collar families who bought modest homes decades ago and now live in “hot markets” they never asked for.
• Widows and widowers trying to survive on one income instead of two.
• Rural and small-town homeowners who see school and municipal budgets climb, while wages in their area barely move.

They’re forced into ugly choices:

• Take on debt in old age just to pay taxes.
• Sell the home they raised their kids in and flee to a cheaper area.
• Cut back on food, heat, medicine, or car repairs to keep up with the tax bill.

This isn’t “progress.” It’s a slow, quiet eviction of the people who built these communities — so government, developers, and big-money buyers can reshuffle the map.