Before you open the door: check both IDs
Every inspector carries a letter of introduction AND a photo ID badge issued by the Manasquan Police Department. Ask to see both.
No badge? No entry. Inspectors will never ask for payment, banking, or personal financial information, and will only enter a home when an adult is present.
Any concerns at all — call the Manasquan Police Department at (732) 223-1000 before letting anyone in.
These are the only three inspectors
Below are the Borough's actual field inspectors and the exact photo ID each one carries. If the person at your door is not one of these three men, carrying this ID, do not let them in — call the Manasquan Police Department at (732) 223-1000.
Inspections just take a few minutes
The exterior of every house and structure is measured and photographed.
The inspector confirms living area and the condition of kitchens, baths, basements & attics.
You'll get a card at your door with a number to call to schedule a convenient time. First visits are unannounced; visits happen days, evenings & weekends.
Inspectors do not set your assessment. Values are determined by the Tax Assessor and NJ-certified appraisers.
Inspectors are not looking for code, zoning, or permit violations — that is not their job. They collect only the information needed to value your property, and it goes only to the Tax Assessor.
If inspectors can't get inside, they must record an estimate — and an appeal of an estimated value will require an interior inspection eventually anyway. Letting them in now takes a few minutes and saves you time and hassle later.
Section 2 is starting now
Section 1 (gold): inspections began July 9. Section 2 (violet): letters are going out now — inspections begin this month. The remaining sections follow later in 2026. Exact timing varies street to street — your notice will arrive by mail, and then the inspector at your door or the card they leave.
This is MY tax bill
A note from Mayor Mike Mangan: "We're asking every homeowner in Manasquan to open their door to an inspector. So it's only fair I go first. Below is my actual 2025 tax bill — my home happens to sit right around the Borough average, so it's a good example of how this works for all of us. Assessments and taxes are public record for every property in New Jersey, mine included."
Your current taxes, explained
Why is my assessment only about half my home's value?
What the ratio is: every year, the NJ Division of Taxation compares the actual sale prices of Manasquan properties that sold against their assessed values. The average of those comparisons becomes the official "average ratio" (the Director's Ratio), certified each October for every town in the State. For 2026, Manasquan's ratio is 50.30% — meaning the typical Manasquan property is assessed at about half of what it would actually sell for, because assessments were last set to market more than a decade ago and prices have roughly doubled since.
But 50.30% is only an average. Some properties sit well above it, some well below — which means the tax burden has quietly drifted out of balance between neighbors. The reassessment resets every property to 100% of today's value so everyone's share is measured by the same yardstick.
And no — a doubled assessment does not mean a doubled bill. When the town's total value rises, the tax rate falls correspondingly. The reassessment does not raise one extra dollar for the Borough, the schools, or the County. Whether your individual bill rises, falls, or stays flat depends only on how your value changed relative to everyone else's.
Most of your tax bill…
…doesn't go to the town.
stays local
Of every dollar on a Manasquan tax bill, only about 23 cents stays with the Borough to fund local services — police, public works, beaches, and everything else Borough government does. The rest passes through to the school district, Monmouth County, and the fire district.
Yet under New Jersey law, it's the municipality that must run the entire assessment and collection function — including this reassessment — on behalf of all of them. Your Borough is doing this work in-house, with its own Tax Assessor's staff, because the law requires it and because fair, accurate values protect every Manasquan taxpayer.
We want to hear from you
Have a question about your inspection, your assessment, or the process? Email the Tax Assessor's office directly — and so everyone stays accountable, your message is automatically copied to the Mayor and the Borough Administrator's office.
Or call Borough Hall at (732) 223-0544 and ask for the Tax Assessor's office.
Timeline
- 2026Interior & exterior inspections of every property in the Borough.
- Late 2026Notices of new value mailed. Free informal one-on-one reviews with the Assessor's office on request.
- Before Jan 15, 2027Deadline to appeal your new assessment to the Monmouth County Tax Board.
- July 2027New assessment first appears on your tax bill; first payment due August 1, 2027.
Quick answers
Who is doing the inspections?
Do I have to let them in?
Are inspectors checking for code or zoning violations?
Will my taxes go up?
What affects my home's value?
What if I disagree with my new value?
When does the new value take effect?
Why is this happening at all?
New values from the reassessment don't take effect until 2027. The increase on the bill you just received comes from this year's rates set by each taxing authority:
See where the 2026 increase came from
Year-over-year percentages can mislead — a big jump on a small line item is fewer dollars than a modest increase on the largest one. That's why the last column shows each authority's share of the total increase: the school district accounts for half, the county lines for roughly a third, and the municipal Open Space Trust about 13%.
For the 10th year in a row, the Borough kept its commitment of not raising the municipal tax rate more than one cent — up $0.008 per $100, about 5 cents of every increased dollar.
Rates per $100 of assessed value; fire district levy not shown. Shares of increase computed from the certified rate changes — every authority taxes the same $2.11 billion assessed base (Monmouth County Board of Taxation, Oct. 2025).
📐 Curious how the math works? Levy, rate & equalized value — explained
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Levy ÷ the town's total assessed value = the tax rate
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Your assessment × the rate = your bill
Each taxing authority adopts a budget; the portion funded by property tax is its levy. Manasquan's combined 2026 levies total roughly $40 million.
The sum of every property assessment in town — currently about $2.11 billion (certified by the Monmouth County Tax Board). It barely moves between revaluations.
Levy ÷ assessed value × 100. Example: the school levy of roughly $21.4 million ÷ $2.11 billion ≈ $1.012 per $100 — exactly the school line on your bill.
Because towns assess at different fractions of market value, the county applies each town's ratio — ours is 50.30% — to compare fairly. Manasquan's equalized value is about $4.2 billion. It's used to divide county taxes among towns, not on your bill directly.
Why percentage changes can fool you
In 2026, the municipal Open Space rate rose 400% — an eye-popping number — while the school rate rose about 8%. But apply those changes to the same $2.11 billion base and the picture flips: the Open Space increase is roughly $420–460 thousand, about 13% of the total increase, while the school increase is roughly $1.7 million — about half of it.
The lesson: dollars, not percentages, tell the truth. A huge percentage on a small line item is fewer dollars than a modest percentage on the biggest one. That's why the table at the top of this page shows each authority's share of the total increase.
And the reassessment? In 2027 the town's assessed value resets to roughly its $4.2 billion true value — about double — so the rate falls by about half. Same levies, same total dollars: only the yardstick changes, and everyone's share gets measured fairly again.