An Amherst homeowner opens the 2026 Notice of Tentative Assessment and the bill jumps. Here is what the Williamsville-side math usually shows.
A typical Amherst homeowner opens the 2026 Notice of Tentative Assessment and sees a 14 percent jump on a home that has not moved a square foot since 2019. The new combined effective rate puts the annual property tax bill near $9,000, against last year's $7,850. The number does not match the home.
What happened on the 2026 Amherst roll?
The tentative roll was built against 2024 and 2025 Amherst sales that ran hot, particularly Williamsville-CSD inventory under $400,000. The town's spring valuation used those Williamsville-side comps to value the homeowner's central-Amherst Cape Cod, which sits outside the Williamsville district and has not seen the same buyer pressure. The combined effective rate sits near 2.6 percent against an assessed value of $345,000. The actual market for that Cape Cod, on a non-Williamsville-CSD street, runs closer to $300,000, which would put the bill near $7,800.
What is the Amherst takeaway?
Sticker shock on a 2026 Amherst bill is usually a comp problem before it is anything else. The Williamsville premium pulls the town-wide model upward and the homeowner pays for a buyer pool the home was never going to see. Fair Appeal handles the full property tax appeal at the Amherst Board of Assessment Review and only charges a percentage of first-year tax savings when the value comes down. FairAppeal monitors the Amherst roll every year, not just once. The statewide grievance procedure is published by NYS Tax & Finance. For the full Amherst picture see the Amherst property tax appeal guide.
Representative example based on typical Amherst cases.