Long Island property tax by town

• Median home value is the middle home in each town — half are worth less, half are worth more — based on the assessor’s declared full market value on the 2025 roll.
• Median tax bill is the middle bill across the school districts in that town. A single town can include several school districts with very different tax loads (e.g., the Town of Hempstead has 30+ districts ranging from Long Beach to Lawrence).
• Effective rate is the median bill divided by the median home value, expressed as a percentage. For context, the U.S. national average is 0.99% and New York State’s average is 1.86%.

Three factors explain most of the variation between Long Island towns:

1. School district mix. Schools are 60–70% of a typical LI tax bill. A town that includes high-spending districts (Half Hollow Hills, Plainview, Syosset) will have a higher median bill than one anchored by lower-spending districts.
2. Home values. Where home values are higher (East Hampton, Southampton, Oyster Bay’s North Shore), the same rate produces a larger bill. East End towns often have lower effective rates but higher absolute bills because the homes are much more expensive.
3. Special districts. Fire, library, sewer, ambulance, and water districts each add a few percent to the bill. Some Suffolk towns have particularly heavy special-district loads (waterfront fire and sewer).

Each town has its own page with the school-district breakdown, ZIP coverage, tax-payment schedule, and links to grievance and exemption guides:

• Glen Cove (Nassau) — 6,451 homes, median bill $11,500, effective rate 2.25%
• Hempstead (Nassau) — 204,144 homes, median bill $10,612, effective rate 2.21%
• Long Beach (Nassau) — 7,333 homes, median bill $9,359, effective rate 1.62%
• North Hempstead (Nassau) — 62,144 homes, median bill $13,816, effective rate 1.87%
• Oyster Bay (Nassau) — 90,956 homes, median bill $12,612, effective rate 2.38%
• Babylon (Suffolk) — 54,809 homes, median bill $12,645, effective rate 2.19%
• Brookhaven (Suffolk) — 134,506 homes, median bill $10,225, effective rate 1.92%
• East Hampton (Suffolk) — 18,755 homes, median bill $10,021, effective rate 0.56%
• Huntington (Suffolk) — 64,481 homes, median bill $12,109, effective rate 1.63%
• Islip (Suffolk) — 81,611 homes, median bill $11,408, effective rate 1.98%
• Riverhead (Suffolk) — 11,376 homes, median bill $8,948, effective rate 1.58%
• Shelter Island (Suffolk) — 2,485 homes, median bill $9,814, effective rate 0.59%
• Smithtown (Suffolk) — 36,943 homes, median bill $14,000, effective rate 2.06%
• Southampton (Suffolk) — 36,644 homes, median bill $9,362, effective rate 0.68%
• Southold (Suffolk) — 13,248 homes, median bill $9,874, effective rate 0.91%