Atlantic County's 2026 tax table puts Absecon's general tax rate at $3.665 per $100 of assessed value and Galloway Township's at $3.504. On a listing sheet that looks like a rounding error, about 4.6%. The same table also lists each town's effective tax rate: 2.298% for Absecon and 1.965% for Galloway. That puts Absecon about 17% higher for the same market value.
The difference comes from the share of market value each town assesses. If you're choosing between Absecon and Galloway, that ratio decides your yearly carrying cost far more than the rate printed on a listing.
The rate on a listing applies to an assessment, not a sale price
New Jersey's Division of Taxation spells out the difference between the two rates on its statistical information page:
The General Tax Rate is a multiplier for use in determining the amount of tax levied upon each property. It is expressed as $1 per $100 of taxable assessed value. This rate is used to compute the tax bill.
The same page describes the effective tax rate as a statistical study for comparing one district with another, "based on the assumption that all districts are at 100% valuation," and warns in bold that it is not meant for computing a bill.
So the general rate tells you how a town turns assessments into bills. The effective rate tells you what that comes to when every town is measured against market value. Comparing towns by general rate only works if they assess at the same fraction of market value, and in Atlantic County they don't.
The state measures that fraction every year in its Chapter 123 certification of average ratios. For tax year 2026, Absecon's average ratio is 62.77%, which means a typical Absecon assessment equals about 63 cents for every dollar of market value. Galloway's is 56.14%. Multiply each general rate by its ratio and you get close to the effective rates the county publishes. That's why a small difference in sticker rates becomes a large difference in what's owed.
Five towns, ranked twice
Here's how Absecon sits beside the towns buyers most often compare it with. The rates come from the Atlantic County 2026 tax rate breakdown. The ratios come from the state's 2026 and 2027 certifications.
| Town | 2026 general rate per $100 | 2026 average ratio | 2026 effective rate | Ratio certified Oct. 1, 2026, for use in 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egg Harbor Township | $3.404 | 61.54% | 2.089% | 57.80% |
| Galloway Township | $3.504 | 56.14% | 1.965% | 51.69% |
| Absecon | $3.665 | 62.77% | 2.298% | 58.24% |
| Northfield | $3.969 | 61.13% | 2.420% | 57.93% |
| Linwood | $4.044 | 64.39% | 2.601% | 60.19% |
Sorted by general rate, Egg Harbor Township comes in lowest and Galloway second. Sorted by effective rate, Galloway moves to the bottom, because its assessments cover the smallest share of market value of the five. Absecon lands in the middle on both lists. What changes is its distance from Galloway, which nearly quadruples once ratios are counted.
Northfield and Linwood stay above Absecon on both measures. Linwood has the highest effective rate of the group at 2.601%.
What the gap looks like on a $350,000 house
To see what the ratio means in dollars, imagine one house with a market value of $350,000. Suppose Absecon and Galloway each assessed it at exactly their 2026 town average. This is a simplified model, since real assessments vary from house to house, but it shows how the system works.
- In Absecon, 62.77% of $350,000 comes to an assessment of about $219,700. At $3.665 per $100, that's roughly $8,050 a year.
- In Galloway, 56.14% of $350,000 comes to an assessment of about $196,500. At $3.504 per $100, that's roughly $6,885 a year.
The general rates differ by 16 cents per $100. On equal market value, the yearly difference is about $1,165. Across a typical ownership stretch, that's real money, and the per-$100 rates hide it.
The Division of Taxation adds a caution of its own. Its guide, How Property Is Valued, defines true value as the likely price under a fair, competitive sale and notes that the price actually paid is not always the property's true value. Your purchase price and the assessment on the tax bill are two separate figures, and the bill is computed from the assessment.
Absecon's bills have also been rising faster
The ratio explains the gap at a single moment. The state's average-bill data shows Absecon's bills climbing more steeply too.
The 2025 averages from the Department of Community Affairs, published by NJ Spotlight News in March 2026, put the average Absecon residential bill at $6,048, with an average home value listed at $171,987. Galloway's was $5,859, with an average home value of $172,880. The two towns' average values in that table are almost the same. Absecon's average bill rose 5.5% from the year before, while Galloway's rose 1.9%. In the same data, Egg Harbor Township averaged $7,259, Northfield $8,299, and Linwood $11,872.
Schools are the largest piece of Absecon's rate. Of the $3.665 total, $1.777 goes to school taxes, which is 48.5% of the rate. The municipal share is $1.259 and the county share is $0.629. The state's 2026–27 budget summary for Absecon schools lists a base local tax levy of $12,643,687, up $247,915 from the revised 2025–26 figure. That's an increase of about 2.0%, with an estimated school tax rate of $1.7707 per $100. On the city side, Absecon posted its 2026 budget presentation from the May 21, 2026 council meeting.
The October 1 ratios have already moved
The Division of Taxation released new average ratios this month. The 2027 certification was promulgated as of October 1, 2026, and sets the ratios for tax year 2027. Every town in the table dropped. Absecon went from 62.77% to 58.24%, and Galloway from 56.14% to 51.69%.
A lower ratio means assessments now cover a smaller share of what homes sell for. Put simply, market values pulled further ahead of assessments over the period the state measured. The change in Absecon's ratio suggests a gap of roughly 8% opened over the year. Galloway's ratio fell by a slightly larger share. That's our reading of the numbers, not an official growth figure. It does line up with county sales. New Jersey Realtors' September 2026 Local Market Update for Atlantic County shows a single-family median sale price of $469,775 for the month, up 11.9% from September 2025. The year-to-date median through September was $449,450, up 10.3%. Those are countywide figures that include the island towns, so they show direction only, not Absecon's own price level.
None of the five towns appears on the state's 2026 list of approved revaluations and reassessments. For anyone comparing towns this fall, the 2026 effective rates in the table are the latest published comparison, and the ratio underneath them has already moved for 2027. If you'd rather see how the median itself misleads across shore towns, our post on why the median home price is the wrong number to watch covers that.
Reading a listing's tax line in Absecon
When an Absecon home shows up next to a comparable Galloway home, this order keeps the comparison fair:
- Find the current assessed value and the most recent actual tax bill, not just the rate.
- Check that bill against the town's 2026 general rate. In Absecon, that's $3.665 per $100 of assessed value.
- Use the effective rates to compare towns, and the bill itself to budget for a specific house. The state is clear that the effective rate isn't meant for calculating a bill.
- Keep in mind that the 2027 ratios are already out, so the effective-rate comparison will shift once 2027 rates are set.
This post is general information about published tax figures, not tax, legal, or financial advice. For your own situation, check with a tax professional or attorney and with the municipal tax assessor.
FAQ
Does a lower ratio for 2027 mean my Absecon taxes go down? No. The ratio measures how assessments compare with market values. Bills come from the general rate times your assessed value. Atlantic County's Board of Taxation says its ratables and equalization tables help set the rates that fund municipal, school, county, and other budgets.
Why does Egg Harbor Township have the lowest general rate but not the lowest effective rate? Its 2026 ratio is 61.54%, compared with Galloway's 56.14%. With Egg Harbor Township assessing a larger share of market value, its effective rate of 2.089% ends up just above Galloway's 1.965%.
What is the "common level range" in the state's ratio tables? For each town, the state publishes a lower and upper limit around the average ratio. For tax year 2027, Absecon's range runs from 49.50% to 66.98%. For what it means for a particular property, ask the tax assessor or a tax professional.
If you're weighing a home in Absecon against one in Galloway or Egg Harbor Township and want the tax line read alongside the price, Pamela Stearns can go through the actual bills and assessments with you before you make an offer. You can also start with a home valuation if you're on the selling side. Call Pam for a free local market consultation.
