The Town of Yorktown posts its 2026/2027 school tax rate sheet on the Tax Receiver's page. Find the Ossining Union Free School District column and read down it. Homes in the Town of Ossining portion of that district are taxed at 18.479463 per $1,000 of assessed value. Homes in the Yorktown portion of the same district are taxed at 1,154.964795 per $1,000.
Both groups pay for the same schools and the same budget. Yorktown's rate is about 62 times higher.
For a buyer comparing Yorktown with other northern Westchester towns, that gap matters. In Yorktown the tax rate tells you very little about what a particular house will cost to own. The house's own assessment decides that, and Yorktown's assessments rest on a system the town hasn't reset in over 50 years.
The Math Behind a Rate Over 1,000
New York State keeps a table of each municipality's most recent townwide reassessment. For Yorktown it says "Prior to 1974." Because of that, Yorktown's assessed values are a small fraction of what homes sell for today. The state measures that fraction with an equalization rate. The Department of Taxation and Finance defines it as a municipality's total assessed value divided by its total market value.
Yorktown's 2025 final equalization rate is 1.60%, according to the state's equalization rate dataset. That is the figure in use for the 2026-27 school tax year. The Town of Ossining's 2025 rate is 100%.
You can check this on the rate sheet. Divide the Ossining-portion rate by the Yorktown-portion rate, 18.479463 by 1,154.964795, and you get 0.016, which is 1.60%. The state uses the equalization rate to divide a school district's levy fairly across towns that assess at very different fractions of market value. Yorktown's rate looks huge because it is applied to very small numbers.
| Same school district, two towns | Equalization rate | 2026/27 school rate per $1,000 assessed |
|---|---|---|
| Town of Ossining portion, Ossining UFSD | 100% | 18.479463 |
| Yorktown portion, Ossining UFSD | 1.60% | 1,154.964795 |
Yorktown homes fall into four school districts, Yorktown Central, Lakeland Central, Ossining Union Free, and Croton-Harmon, so a Yorktown address can carry any of four school rates. For 2026/27, the Yorktown-portion rates are 1,098.887077 for Yorktown Central, 1,174.012749 for Lakeland, 1,154.964795 for Ossining, and 1,019.401871 for Croton-Harmon. The general town tax rate on Westchester County's 2026 schedule is 178.3223 per $1,000 of assessed value.
What One Number Hides
Here is an illustration, not a quote for any real house. Take a home with a market value of $770,000 that happens to be assessed at exactly the town's 1.60% ratio. Its assessed value would be about $12,320. At the Yorktown Central rate, the school tax would be about $13,538, and the general town line would add about $2,197.
That example only works if the house is assessed at exactly the townwide average ratio, and the state warns against assuming that. The Department of Taxation and Finance says an equalization rate describes a municipality as a whole and does not correct an unfair assessment on any single property. The 1.60% is an average across every parcel in town. In a town that hasn't reassessed in more than five decades, individual homes can sit well above or below that average.
So two similar houses on one Yorktown street can carry quite different tax bills. Each one's assessment reflects its own history: when it was built, what was added and permitted over the years, and how the assessor's office handled it along the way. Market value and assessment can drift apart, and nothing in the system brings every parcel back into line together.
Yorktown isn't alone. The same state table lists Cortlandt, Somers, Bedford, White Plains, and Peekskill as "Prior to 1974" too. Greenburgh, Mamaroneck, North Salem, and the Town of Ossining all show 2026 reassessments. Northern Westchester is a patchwork. A buyer looking at Yorktown alongside Ossining is comparing two different assessment systems as well as two towns.
Why the Seller's Assessment Usually Comes With the House
This is the part of Yorktown's system that matters most once you're under contract. A sale doesn't trigger a new assessment at the purchase price.
A legal opinion from the state's Office of Real Property Tax Services says an assessor may not reassess only the parcels that recently sold or were improved, a practice known as "welcome stranger" or "welcome neighbor" assessment. The ORPTS opinion allows an individual change when the assessor can justify it under uniform assessment standards. Selling the house is not, by itself, that justification.
That makes the seller's current assessment one of the most useful figures in a Yorktown listing. In practice, it is the assessment the next owner starts with. If it sits below the town ratio for comparable homes, the house costs less to carry than its neighbors. If it sits above, the house costs more, and a buyer pricing the purchase by the rate sheet alone won't see it.
In Yorktown, compare the assessment against similar nearby homes in the same school district. Comparing rates across towns tells you much less. Our Cortlandt Manor tax post covers a different issue, where the levy itself is shifting. In Yorktown, the bigger variable is each home's own assessment.
Why It Matters in This Fall's Market
The market is giving buyers more room to look closely right now. Yorktown's single-family median sale price for September 2026 was $770,000, down 9.4% from September 2025. That is a single month's figure. Total inventory that month was 76, up 33.3% from a year earlier. Homes averaged 31 days on market, and the 17 single-family sales that month closed at 102% of asking price. From January through September 2026, Yorktown recorded 108 single-family sales, up 13.7% from the same stretch of 2025.
The wider area looks steadier than that one month. Houlihan Lawrence's third-quarter comparison, reported by Yonkers Times, showed Northwest Westchester, which includes Yorktown, with sales up 3% and median sale price up 7% in Q3 2026 compared with Q3 2025.
With more homes to choose from and roughly a month on market, there is time to put two similar listings side by side and compare their assessments, not just their asking prices. Homes still sold above asking in September 2026, so the carrying cost locked into each assessment can be one of the few real differences between two otherwise similar houses.
How the Assessment Calendar Works
Yorktown homeowners can challenge an assessment, but the process runs on a fixed annual schedule. Town Assessor Gary Edward Link's office suggests talking with the assessor informally before the tentative roll comes out. Here is the cycle as the town lays it out:
- Tentative roll. For the 2027 roll, it is expected June 1, 2027. The valuation date is July 1, 2026.
- Grievance. Applications open June 1, 2027 and must arrive by 8 p.m. on June 15, 2027, the third Tuesday of June. Attending the Board of Assessment Review is optional, and determination letters are dated September 15, 2027, according to the grievance instructions.
- Final roll. For the current cycle, the 2026 final roll was published September 15, 2026.
- Small Claims Assessment Review. For the 2026 roll, the SCAR filing deadline is October 15, 2026. SCAR is open only to owners who filed a grievance first. It covers owner-occupied one-, two-, and three-family homes and qualifying unimproved residential land, and petitions must also be served on the Assessor, Town Clerk, and school district, per the town's SCAR page.
For a buyer, the calendar sets the timing. A home bought this fall carries the 2026 final roll, and the next grievance window opens in June 2027.
A Few Questions We Hear
Does a higher tax rate mean Yorktown taxes are higher than the next town over? Not by itself. Rates in towns with different equalization rates can't be compared directly. In the Ossining UFSD example, Yorktown's rate is about 62 times higher, and the equalization rate adjusts for that difference.
Is Yorktown planning a townwide reassessment? Our research found no 2024–2026 local news coverage or town discussion of a townwide revaluation plan for Yorktown.
Can I estimate market value from a listing's assessed value? Dividing by 1.60% works for the town as a whole. The state says that rate doesn't fix individual assessments, though, so for any single house the result is a rough guide, not an appraisal.
Which school district a Yorktown home falls in matters for the rate. How do I find out? The Town Receiver's rate sheet lists all four districts and their phone numbers. The town notes that it only collects school taxes and does not set the amount due.
If you're weighing a Yorktown home, or comparing it with a house in a town that just reassessed, The Nancy Kennedy Team can pull the assessment history on the homes you're considering and set them next to their neighbors before you write an offer. Request a local market consultation, and you can learn more about the town's hamlets on our Yorktown page.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
