Chatham Township Property Revaluation 2027: What Buyers Should Know

If you buy a home in Chatham Township this fall, the property tax figure on the listing comes from an assessment the Township last changed in 2005. The revaluation that replaces it uses a market value date of October 1, 2026, which has already passed. Your 2027 bill won't be set by how much the house is worth. It will be set by how much its value rose compared with every other property in town. That townwide average won't be known until the revaluation is finished, with final values tentatively due December 31, 2026, and the dollar amount of the bill waits on the new tax rate, which the Township expects in late summer 2027. By then, many of this fall's buyers will have been paying estimated bills for months.

That gap is the problem. You can't price it from the listing, and most of it shows up after closing.

How old the current number is

The Morris County Board of Taxation ordered the revaluation on December 21, 2023. It set a completion deadline of September 30, 2026, with the new values taking effect for the 2027 tax year. The Township Committee hired Appraisal Systems, Inc. (ASI) for the work on January 28, 2025. At a public presentation reported by the Chatham Courier, ASI executive vice president Robert Brescia said the Township's last full revaluation was in 1992.

The state's Director's Ratio compares assessed values with what homes actually sell for, and it shows how far the two have drifted. For Chatham Township it was 88.61 in the 2020 column. It has dropped every year since, to 61.27 in the most recent column. The state's 2026 Average Residential Statistics show the same gap. They list an average residential assessment of $878,576 and an average sale price of $1,520,970 across 114 sales. Roughly speaking, a typical assessment covers a bit under 60 cents of each dollar a home sells for.

The listing tax bill rests on that gap. A seller quoting last year's taxes is quoting a 2005 assessment times a tax rate built around it. For reference, the state's 2025 figures put the Township's average residential tax bill at $18,373.

The math that decides your bill

A revaluation doesn't raise the total the Township collects. The Township's revaluation FAQ calls the process revenue-neutral. It says the tax burden gets redistributed among owners and that the 2027 tax rate won't be available until late summer 2027. Brescia gave a hypothetical at the public session that shows how this works:

1. A home assessed at $875,000 at a tax rate of 2.104 pays $18,410.
2. Suppose assessments across the township rise by an average of 1.4 times.
3. The tax rate drops by the same factor, from 2.104 to 1.503, so the Township collects the same total.
4. If that home is revalued at $1.225 million, exactly 1.4 times its old assessment, its tax stays the same.
5. A home that rises more than the township average pays more. A home that rises less pays less.

Brescia also said plainly that the township average won't be known until the inspections and revaluation are finished. The 1.4 figure was only an illustration. When he gave it, the Courier reported the Township's ratio at 72%, and the state's ratio has fallen since.

For a buyer, a big jump in the new assessment is not bad news on its own. The only thing that matters is whether your home's jump is bigger or smaller than the townwide jump. The Township says residential owners currently pay about 96% of its property taxes, so most of any shift will move from one homeowner to another.

What happened next door in 2023

Chatham Borough went through this recently, with the same firm. ASI handled the Borough's county-ordered revaluation and filed its final tax list for the 2023 cycle. Patch reported that the revaluation raised the Borough's ratables by 45 percent, or $975 million. The combined tax rate fell from .425 in 2022 to .306 in 2023. Patch's worked example was a home whose value rose 40 percent, from $690,000 to $966,000, and still saw its overall taxes drop by $212.87.

The Borough also showed when the correction lands. Bills for the first two quarters were based on the prior year's taxes. Council member Jocelyn Mathiasen described what came next:

"A lot of people's taxes are going to swing quite a bit in one direction or another. By the third quarter there will be a huge correction. People whose valuation went up by significantly more than say 45 percent may get a big surprise in the third quarter, and then people who were below the average might find that they already paid the bulk of their taxes for the year."

Chatham Township's billing calendar has the same basic shape. Quarterly taxes are due February 1, May 1, August 1 and November 1. The regular annual bill goes out in September, and a separate estimated bill for the August quarter goes out in June. The Township has already used an estimated third-quarter bill in a normal year. In June 2025 it authorized one because the levy wouldn't be certified in time, setting an estimated rate of 2.020. In 2027, with every assessment reset at once, the August installment is the likeliest point for the gap between old and new to show up.

The timeline after October 1

The Township published a tentative schedule in February 2024. The dates still to come fall right in the middle of this fall's closings.

The last row comes from the Township's FAQ, not the original timeline. Treat the whole table as tentative. April 2026 Township Committee minutes say inspections were underway, but ASI's project page was last updated June 16, 2026. No public update confirms whether fieldwork met the September 30 deadline. The Township's revaluation announcement says appeals go to the Morris County Board of Taxation. For properties assessed over $1 million, appeals can go to the Tax Court of New Jersey.

Patch reported that owners will be notified of their proposed values by mail. If your closing falls after mid-November, the first letter on the home you're buying may go to the seller. That letter is the earliest real evidence of where the house stands against the township average.

The inspection detail that cuts both ways

At the March 24, 2026 Township Committee meeting, Mayor Rowland said it is in owners' interest to let inspectors in. If a house isn't inspected, she said, the revaluation will have to assume the highest possible assessment for it. Brescia described the interior visit as five to ten minutes. He said the condition and quality of kitchens and bathrooms matter most. Committeeman Choi noted that owners can check their place in the inspection queue on ASI's website.

So the seller's inspection history becomes part of your deal. A home ASI never got inside could get a new assessment that reflects assumptions rather than the actual house. The informal review window in November and December is the cleanest chance to correct that before final values are locked on December 31.

Questions to raise before you sign

None of this is tax or legal advice, and your attorney is the right person to decide how to handle it in a contract. These are fair questions to bring to the table:

• Did ASI complete an interior inspection of the home, and if not, what's the status in the inspection queue?
• If the preliminary value letter arrives before closing, will the seller share it?
• How does your attorney plan to handle tax prorations and escrow, given that 2027 first- and second-quarter bills are estimates and the third quarter is likely to settle the difference?
• If the new assessment looks out of line, who handles an informal review with ASI in November or December, and who will own the home on the May 1, 2027 appeal deadline?

For a market check, the most recent public figures are countywide. In August 2026, Morris County single-family homes closed at a median of $843,750, spent a median of 24 days on market, and sold at 104.8% of list price across 394 sales. When homes sell at a premium like that, sale prices pull away from assessments frozen since 2005. That premium is the reason buyers need to understand the revaluation math when they make an offer.

FAQ

Will my taxes go up because my assessment jumps? Not necessarily. The Township describes the revaluation as revenue-neutral. Your bill depends on how your new assessment compares with the township average, which no one will know until values are final.

When will I know the actual 2027 rate? The Township says late summer 2027.

Is there a calculator? The Chatham Courier reported that ASI planned to offer a tax calculator on its website, but ASI's current Chatham Township project page doesn't list one.

If you're buying or selling in Chatham Township while the new values come out, Karen Torrente can go through the revaluation timeline, the inspection status, and the preliminary value letter with you before you sign anything. Let's Connect.