March, 1936] Rural Real Estate Tax Delinquency in N. H. 15 



County, averaging $62.24. The comparatively high values of land without 

 buildings in Carroll and Grafton Counties are doubtless due to many nearby 

 summer resorts. Other counties in which this class of land exceeded forest 

 lands in assessed value per acre were Merrimack, Rockingham and Straf- 

 ford. 



Tax Sales 



A tax advertisement is a notice of sale. Tax sales arise when property 

 owners do not discharge the delinquent taxes before the notice of sale ex- 

 pires, which, according to statute, cannot be less than four weeks from the 

 date of posting. Extreme variations in the time lapsed between December 1 

 and the date of sale affect the extent of sales and make the data less compar- 

 able between tax units, but to a lesser degree than in case of delinquency. 

 Whereas the year applied to tax delinquency was the year of levy, that 

 applied to tax sales is the year in which the sale actually occurred, this being 

 the year following that of levy. In all instances tax sales are those reported 

 to the County Register of Deeds. Because the delinquent properties were 

 not yet advertised for the 1933 levy and the data for dehnquencies were 

 consequently not yet available for this study in its early stages, some field 

 workers failed also to record the tax sales. Thus the schedules are com- 

 plete only for the years 1929 through 1932. 



Like delinquency, tax sales represent many properties which are sold 

 repeatedly for two or more years, the property owner having redeemed the 

 property during each year in which it was sold before being sold again. The 

 amount of tax sales then is not a measure of new sales. 



Extent of Tax Sales and Trends 



When rural real estate is sold for taxes the value of that sale represents 

 the original tax levy plus interest and incidental charges. Mounting at the 

 rate of over $23,000 per year from 1929, the value of tax sales for 92 per 

 cent of the New Hampshire towns amounted to $123,791 in 1932, the peak 

 year, nearly two and one-half times that of 1929. (Table 8 and Appendix 

 B.) Relatively, tax sales were increasing faster than tax advertisements. 

 The greatest increase in any year over the previous year occurred in 1931 

 when tax sales exceeded that of 1930 by nearly one-half. These facts are 

 consistent with tax delinquency which showed a peak year for the 1931 levy 

 and the greatest annual increase for the 1930 levy. Although the towns in 

 Grafton County were consistently the largest buyers of rural lands, these 

 purchases may not be proportionately greater. Approximately three-fourths 

 of the value of the 1932 tax sales were in the five counties, Coos, Grafton, 

 Hillsboro, Merrimack, and Rockingham. Tax sales for 1932 were more 

 than four times the 1929 figure for Merrimack County and more than three 

 times as great in Cheshire County. In only the three counties, Belknap, 

 Carroll and Rockingham, did tax sales less than double during this period. 

 In a few instances, because of interest and other charges, and because few 

 or none of the properties advertised had been discharged before sale, the 

 value of tax sales exceeded the amount for which the properties were ad- 

 vertised. 



The general trend in the number of properties sold and in the acreage 

 involved is similar to that for the value of the sales. 



