Cape May County NJ property tax rates by town (2025)
Each town sets its own general rate. The bars below are one named municipality’s school / county / municipal split of that rate — not a single county-wide bill. State school aid is outside this bar; it reduces the school levy before the rate is struck. How NJ taxes work.
Cape May County at a glance
16 municipalities and 109,912 parcels are on the 2026 file. 0 of those towns have a 2026 general rate loaded. On a $500,000 sale in 2025, the estimated tax runs from $1,745 in Avalon Boro to $7,929 in Wildwood City. The middle bill is $4,330 in Wildwood Crest Boro. Class 2 residential assessments moved from $48,825,519,300 to $49,355,965,000, up 1.1%. The median class 2 house was built in 1983.
Median school-share town (rate year 2025): Wildwood Crest Boro
Among 16 municipalities on the 2025 rate sheet. Bars are Wildwood Crest Boro’s own components — not three separate county medians.
Schools
26.0%
County
23.9%
Municipal
50.1%
School-share range in 2025: Cape May Point Boro 2.7% → Dennis Twp 73.1%.
How to read Cape May County
On the 2025 rate sheet, the middle municipality by school share is Wildwood Crest Boro: 26.0% schools, 23.9% county, 50.1% municipal. School share on that same sheet runs from Cape May Point Boro at 2.7% to Dennis Twp at 73.1%.
Class 2 residential net assessments in this county changed from $48,825,519,300 to $49,355,965,000, up 1.1%, on 91,519 parcels with both a prior net and a 2026 net. That is the assessment roll for this county. It is not a list of which towns rose the most, and it is not an appraisal.
Estimated class 2 tax on the towns with both a prior rate and a current rate moved from $577,864,524 to $600,236,491, up 3.9%. Each of those 16 towns uses its own two rate years. The prior rate is as early as 2024 and the current rate is as late as 2025. This is not one calendar-year county levy. When a town reassesses, the assessment percent and this bill percent are different stories, because the rate falls as the assessments reset.
The largest class share of net assessed value in the 2026 file is Residential at 86.0%.
These are this county’s own figures. The general rate is not comparable across towns until each town’s assessment ratio is applied. The sale-price section states the tax on the same $200,000 sale and the same $500,000 sale after that ratio. Towns stay in legal-name order. State school aid is outside the rate bars.
Tax on a $200,000 or $500,000 sale, 2025
A sale price is not the assessment. In Cape May County for 2025, each town’s average ratio turns that price into an assessment, and that town’s general rate is applied to the assessment. On a $500,000 sale, the bill is $1,745 in Avalon Boro (ratio 57.39%, rate 0.608) and $7,929 in Wildwood City (ratio 51.42%, rate 3.084). The middle bill is $4,330 in Wildwood Crest Boro. A $200,000 sale uses the same ratio and rate in that town. This is an Abstract of Ratables estimate, not a collector bill, and the ratio is the town average, not an appraisal of one house.
Highest estimated tax in Cape May County: $138,690
Residential
The highest residential estimate in Cape May County is $138,690 at 5299 DUNE DRIVE, Avalon Boro, on a net assessment of $22,810,900 and a 2025 general rate of 0.608.
The highest business estimate in Cape May County is $631,525 at 3201 RTE 9 S, Middle Twp, on a net assessment of $30,332,600 and a 2025 general rate of 2.082.
Owner names are not shown. Each town’s own rate is used, so a higher assessment in a low-rate town can still be a lower tax. Commercial and industrial parcels (class 4A and 4B) are the business list. Apartment buildings are class 4C and are not in that list. This is not a collector’s bill.
Cape May County this year
16 municipalities sit on the 2026 assessment file. Loaded general rates in this warehouse are predominantly 2025 — check each town’s rate-year note before reading a YoY percent as final.
On the 2025 sheet, school share of the local rate runs from Cape May Point Boro (~3% schools) to Dennis Twp (~73% schools). The median school-share municipality is named in the panel above (Cape May City on the loaded file, about 32% / 35% / 33% school/county/municipal).
West Wildwood Boro sits toward the municipal-heavy end of the county (~61% municipal / ~19% schools, general rate 2.070). That contrast is why a single “Cape May County tax rate” headline fails — the table is the story.
Sources: NJ Division of Taxation MOD-IV and Abstract of Ratables. Estimates are not collector bills. State school aid is outside these bars. How NJ taxes work · Disclaimer.
Housing stock in Cape May County, median year built 1983
On the 2026 file, class 2 houses in Cape May County with a year built have a median year of 1983, about 43 years old. Of those 89,841 houses, the largest share was built 1980–1999. This is the assessor’s year built. It is not a ranking of towns.
By parcel count, Residential 83.6%, Vacant land 12.1%, Commercial 3.5%, Apartment 0.3%, Farm (qualified) 0.3%, Farm (regular) 0.2%, Other / unclassified <0.1%, Industrial <0.1%. Those percentages are a count of parcels, not a share of tax dollars. The class table uses the tax-base share.
Year built
Before 1940
11.3%
1940–1959
12.6%
1960–1979
21.4%
1980–1999
27.8%
2000–2009
17.0%
2010–2026
9.9%
Assessor building line
Grouped from the assessor’s building abbreviation. One-family, two-family, and condo are the codes that read clearly. Other codes stay in their own group. This is not a bedroom count, and square feet are left off because most records do not include them.
One-family
65,403 73.3%
Two-family
426 0.5%
Three-family or more
18 <0.1%
Condo
11,880 13.3%
Other codes
11,549 12.9%
Ratable base by property class
Share of net assessed value in the MOD-IV parcel file (not the Abstract value columns). Class 15 exempt parcels may be under-counted when net value is zero. This is the tax base mix, not a school rating.
Class
Parcels
Net assessed
% of net
Residential 2
91,894
$49,560,338,500
86.0%
Vacant land 1
13,336
$4,122,452,200
7.2%
Commercial 4A
3,797
$3,597,738,900
6.2%
Industrial 4B
16
$13,134,300
0.0%
Apartment 4C
354
$263,168,200
0.5%
Farm (regular) 3A
173
$53,079,400
0.1%
Farm (qualified) 3B
292
$4,002,200
0.0%
Other / unclassified other
50
$3,579,500
0.0%
Municipalities
Default order is legal name. The general rate is not comparable across towns with different equalized ratios and is not a ranking of tax burden. Percents are shares of school + county + municipal cents on the rate sheet.