Property Tax in Little Silver, New Jersey
Little Silver is a small Monmouth County borough on the Shrewsbury River, and it is important to say plainly at the outset: this is a river town, not an oceanfront one. There is no direct Atlantic Ocean frontage here at all. The borough covers 3.32 square miles total, split between roughly 2.71 square miles of land and 0.61 square miles of water, which comes to about 18.28 percent water, and roughly 8 percent of homes sit directly on the Shrewsbury River itself, with another third or so situated along the smaller streams that feed into it. That river-adjacent geography, rather than any ocean beach, is the real backdrop for understanding property values and the tax base here. Little Silver's population has grown modestly and unevenly across the last three censuses, moving from 6,170 residents in 2000 to 5,950 in 2010, a decline of about 3.6 percent, before recovering to 6,131 by 2020, an increase of roughly 3.0 percent, with a median age of 45.0. This page does not state a current Little Silver property tax rate, mill rate, assessed value, or tax bill for any address, because no such figure was independently confirmed during this research pass, and because a borough's tax base is shaped by too many moving parts, school funding, county apportionment, local budget decisions, to guess at responsibly. Verify current numbers directly with the tax assessor before budgeting a purchase.
A River Town's Tax Base, Not an Oceanfront One
Little Silver sits on the Shrewsbury River in Monmouth County, and its property tax base has to be understood on those terms rather than compared directly to a barrier-island or oceanfront market. With water making up close to a fifth of the borough's total area, and with a meaningful share of homes directly on the river or along its connecting streams, water access here means river frontage, docks, and tidal creeks rather than beach frontage or ocean views. That distinction matters for a buyer trying to understand why a given property is priced or assessed the way it is: a river-view or river-access lot in Little Silver is not competing on the same terms as an oceanfront lot in a barrier-island town, and any research or comparison that assumes otherwise is starting from the wrong premise.
None of this page assumes a specific relationship between river frontage and assessed value in Little Silver, because no such figure was confirmed during this research pass. What is worth doing directly is asking the Monmouth County Board of Taxation and the Little Silver tax assessor how river-adjacent parcels are actually assessed, and whether flood zone designation, which tends to matter more in a river town like this than in a beach town, plays into that assessment at all.
The Richardson Train Station and What Historic Landmarks Can Mean for a Tax Base
One genuinely distinctive asset in Little Silver's tax base is the train station on Sycamore Avenue, built in 1890 and designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the most influential American architects of the 19th century. The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and it still serves the North Jersey Coast Line today, with direct rail connections to Hoboken Terminal, Newark Penn Station, and New York Penn Station. A commuter rail station of that architectural pedigree, sitting within an easy walk of parts of the borough, is exactly the kind of civic asset that can support desirability and, by extension, the broader property tax base, even though this page does not claim or invent any specific dollar effect on assessed values.
A working New York and Newark commuter connection is also a practical, day-to-day reason buyers weigh Little Silver against other Monmouth County towns, separate from the station's historic-landmark status. Anyone evaluating the borough should ask the assessor's office how the station and its surrounding commercial or transit-adjacent parcels factor into the broader municipal budget, rather than assuming a single landmark building meaningfully changes an individual homeowner's bill.
New Jersey Runs a Real Sales Tax and Its Own Property Tax System
New Jersey has a real, functioning state sales tax and its own locally administered property tax structure, and it is worth being explicit that no no-sales-tax framing borrowed from a different state applies here. Property taxes in New Jersey are assessed and levied locally, through each municipality, school district, and county under state law, and there is no single statewide rate applied uniformly to every Monmouth County borough, whether it sits directly on the Shrewsbury River, like Little Silver, or somewhere else along the shore.
This page will not state a specific current New Jersey state sales tax percentage or a specific current Little Silver, Monmouth County, or school-district property tax rate, because none was confirmed during this research pass. New Jersey is widely known to carry some of the higher property tax burdens among U.S. states in general terms, but that general reputation is not the same as a confirmed local mill rate or dollar figure for Little Silver specifically, and a rate quoted for a neighboring town should never be assumed to carry over here without direct verification.
From a 1663 Land Grant to a 1923 Borough
Little Silver's own history runs unusually deep for a Monmouth County shore-area town. The land was established by a King's grant in 1663 and settled by 1667, among the oldest documented land grants of any market in this area, and for a long stretch afterward the area was simply part of Shrewsbury Township. It was not until an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 19, 1923, that Little Silver separated and incorporated as its own borough. That is a long civic lineage, three and a half centuries from the original grant to today, layered on top of the more recent population changes: a dip from 6,170 residents in 2000 to 5,950 in 2010, then a recovery to 6,131 by 2020, with roughly a quarter of residents under 18 and about a fifth over 65.
That long history, combined with the Richardson-designed train station and the river-town geography, is what actually distinguishes Little Silver from other Monmouth County shore communities, not an oceanfront identity it does not have. Buyers researching the borough should treat that identity, old land grant, river frontage, historic rail landmark, as the real starting point, rather than assuming beach-town comparisons that do not apply.
What to Verify Before Budgeting a Purchase
What is confirmed here: Little Silver is a 3.32-square-mile Monmouth County borough (about 2.71 square miles land, 0.61 square miles water) on the Shrewsbury River with no direct Atlantic Ocean frontage; roughly 8 percent of homes sit directly on the river and another third along connecting streams; the land was granted in 1663 and settled in 1667, later part of Shrewsbury Township before incorporating as its own borough on March 19, 1923; the Richardson-designed train station on Sycamore Avenue, built in 1890, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and still serves the North Jersey Coast Line; and population moved from 6,170 in 2000 to 5,950 in 2010 to 6,131 in 2020, with a median age of 45.0.
What this page will not do is invent a current Little Silver property tax rate, mill rate, assessed value, or tax bill, because none of that was independently confirmed during this research pass. Get the actual current numbers directly from the Little Silver tax assessor's office, the Monmouth County Board of Taxation, and a real estate attorney or accountant familiar with Monmouth County river towns before making an offer. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on Little Silver, New Jersey, a 3.32-square-mile borough (roughly 2.71 square miles land, 0.61 square miles water, 18.28 percent water) in Monmouth County, situated on the Shrewsbury River with no direct Atlantic Ocean frontage; approximately 8 percent of homes sit directly on the river, with another third along connecting streams. The land was established by a King's grant in 1663 and settled in 1667, later part of Shrewsbury Township, before incorporating as its own borough by act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 19, 1923. Population was 6,170 in the 2000 census, 5,950 in 2010 (down 3.6 percent), and 6,131 in 2020 (up 3.0 percent from 2010), with a median age of 45.0, 25.2 percent under 18, and 20.1 percent over 65. The Little Silver train station on Sycamore Avenue was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, built in 1890, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and serves the North Jersey Coast Line with connections to Hoboken Terminal, Newark Penn Station, and New York Penn Station. Notable residents include Karl Guthe Jansky (1905-1950), founder of radio astronomy; Susan Love (1948-2023), surgeon and breast-cancer-prevention advocate; Declan O'Scanlon (b. 1963), New Jersey state senator; and Chris Gotterup (b. 1999), PGA Tour player. No confirmed current Little Silver property tax rate, mill rate, assessed-value figure, or tax bill was independently confirmed this research pass, and none is invented here; New Jersey's property-tax and sales-tax structure is treated as genuinely different from a no-sales-tax state rather than assumed to carry over. Confirm current numbers directly with the Little Silver tax assessor's office, the Monmouth County Board of Taxation, and a licensed real estate attorney and accountant before making any purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.