Massachusetts Property Tax Rates

The average single-family property tax bill in Massachusetts in 2021 is $6,372, up $197 from the previous year, according to a recent report conducted by the Division of Local Services, Massachusetts Department of Revenue. The average tax rate in Massachusetts is now $15.24 for every $1,000 in assessed property value.

Towns and cities with the highest tax rates are not necessarily those with the highest tax bills. The assessed value of the homes is also part of the equation. The highest tax rate in the state goes to Longmeadow, a town near Springfield, which has an annual tax rate of $24.74, but the average home value is $379,456, putting the average tax bill at $9,388.

The highest tax bills in Massachusetts are in many communities outside of Boston within the 495 beltway. Weston, which has an average home value of $1,667,828, has an average tax bill of $21,648 the highest in the state. The town of Lincoln comes in second, with an average tax bill of $18,333 and an average home value of $1,181,244.

Most towns in western Massachusetts with assessed home values lower than the state average have the lowest tax bills in the state, such as the town of Hancock, with an average annual tax bill of just $764

and the average home value of $256,432. The town of Rowe, in northwestern Massachusetts near Vermont, has an annual tax bill of $1,166

and an average home value of $218,683.

Towns in the Cape and the Islands have high property values yet very low tax rates and thus have relatively low tax bills. This is because many of these properties are vacation properties so they don’t require taxes to pay for services and amenities off-season.

For home buyers looking for reasonable tax rates but who still want to live in the metro Boston area, there are several cities or towns where the combination of reasonable tax rates and home values put their tax bills below the state average. Towns and cities in the Greater Boston area with the lowest tax bills are:

Thirteen cities and towns on this list don’t show average tax bill numbers because they have adopted a residential exemption, and detailed data used to determine their average tax bills is unavailable. They are: Barnstable, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Nantucket, Somerset, Somerville, Tisbury, Waltham and Watertown. The tax rates for these towns, however, are listed at the end of this article.

The residential exemption is a dollar value that is exempt for taxation on a principal residence that you own. This exemption reduces the taxable valuation of a taxpayer’s principal residence. For instance, in Waltham, the residential exemption reduces the assessed value of a primary residence by $78,317. So a home in Waltham assessed at $450,000 would be taxed at the reduced valuation of $371,683.

Sources:

Massachusetts Department of Revenue