What is the property tax rate in Massachusetts?
The property tax rate in Massachusetts averages 1.00% of market value for owner-occupied homes, based on the Tax Foundation’s 2026 ranking, which uses the 2024 American Community Survey. That is well below Connecticut’s 1.54% and Illinois’s 1.88% on the same measure, though Massachusetts home values are high enough that dollar bills are still large.
Your own bill comes from a local rate, not that average. Massachusetts has no county property tax, so each of its 351 cities and towns sets a rate per $1,000 of assessed value every fiscal year. The Division of Local Services (DLS) reports a total FY2026 levy of about $24.0 billion on $2.001 trillion of assessed value in the 343 communities whose rates were certified, which works out to roughly $12 per $1,000 across all property classes.
How Massachusetts sets assessed value
Assessors value every parcel at its fair cash value as of January 1, and that value is used for the fiscal year that begins the following July 1. There is no fractional ratio: the assessment is meant to equal market value.
DLS must certify that each community assesses at full and fair cash value, and communities report interim-year adjustments every year to keep values near market between full revaluations. In practice, your assessment moves with the market each year, up or down.
Apartment buildings fall in the residential class. Communities may vote to tax commercial and industrial property at a higher rate than residential, which is why Boston’s FY2026 residential rate is $12.40 while its commercial rate is $26.96. For an apartment owner, the residential rate is the one that counts.
Proposition 2 1/2 and what it limits
Proposition 2 1/2 caps the total amount a community can levy, not the assessment on your building. The levy ceiling is 2.5% of the community’s total full and fair cash value, and the levy limit can grow by 2.5% a year plus new growth from development.
Voters can raise the limit with an override, which permanently raises the base, or allow temporary debt and capital exclusions. DLS reports that none of the 343 communities with certified FY2026 rates had levy limits at or near their ceilings.
Because the limit applies to the town’s total, your share can rise faster than 2.5%. If apartment values climb faster than single-family homes or commercial property, apartments carry a larger slice of the levy. When values rise overall, the rate usually falls, and DLS counted 230 communities whose residential rate went down for FY2026.
Does a sale trigger reassessment in Massachusetts?
No law resets your assessment because the building sold. Assessments are updated to market each January 1 anyway, so a sale is one more piece of evidence the assessor uses in the next valuation.
In practice that means a buyer who pays well above the current assessment should expect the value to move toward the price within a year or two. The tax does not jump overnight the way it does in states that reset value at sale, but the buyer does not inherit a frozen assessment either.
Massachusetts property tax rates by city and town
FY2026 residential rates range from $2.18 per $1,000 in Hancock to $20.35 in Westhampton, according to DLS. The table adds the residential rates published by four of the state’s larger apartment markets. Rates are per $1,000 of assessed value and apply to apartment buildings in the residential class.
Low rates in places like Cambridge reflect very high property values and a large commercial base, not a light bill. A Cambridge building can still owe more than a similar building in a town with a higher rate if it is assessed at twice the value.
| City or town | FY2026 residential rate (per $1,000) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Westhampton (highest statewide) | $20.35 | DLS |
| Worcester | $13.28 | City of Worcester |
| Boston | $12.40 | City of Boston |
| Lowell | $11.35 | City of Lowell |
| Cambridge | $6.67 | City of Cambridge |
| Hancock (lowest statewide) | $2.18 | DLS |
How to appeal your property tax in Massachusetts
File an abatement application with your local assessors by the due date of the first actual (not preliminary) tax bill. In communities that bill quarterly, that is usually February 1, alongside the third-quarter payment. If actual bills are mailed after December 31, the deadline is May 1 or 30 days after mailing, whichever is later. Semi-annual communities generally use November 1.
Assessors then have three months to decide. If they do nothing, the application is deemed denied. You have three months from the decision or deemed denial to appeal to the Appellate Tax Board. When the tax is over $5,000, you must keep paying installments on time, or the board can dismiss your appeal.
- January 1: valuation date for the coming fiscal year.
- Usually February 1 in quarterly communities: abatement application due.
- Three months after filing: assessors decide, or the application is deemed denied.
- Three months after that decision: deadline to appeal to the Appellate Tax Board.
- 60 days: time to answer an assessors’ written request for information under Section 38D. For apartments that usually means income and expense figures.
How Massachusetts tax bills are timed
The Massachusetts fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, and many communities, including Boston, bill quarterly. In Boston, for example, the first two quarterly bills are estimates based on the prior year, and the new rate first shows up on the third-quarter bill issued around the turn of the year.
That timing matters in a sale. The rate for the fiscal year is often not set until late fall, so a closing in September or October is usually adjusted on estimated figures and trued up later. Ask your closing attorney how the proration will handle the preliminary bills and the actual bill that follows.
It also explains why the abatement deadline falls in winter. The window opens only once the actual bill, with the new rate and value, has gone out.
Effective rate or local rate: which one to use
Use your city or town’s rate times your assessed value for your own building, and the 1.00% effective rate only to compare Massachusetts with other states. The Tax Foundation figure divides median taxes paid by median value for owner-occupied homes, so it says nothing about a particular apartment building.
Local rates are also misleading on their own. Cambridge’s $6.67 is one of the lower residential rates in the state, but its values are among the highest. Compare buildings on tax per unit or tax as a share of rent, which is closer to how a buyer reads the numbers.
Property tax exemptions for Massachusetts apartments
Investor-owned apartment buildings get little from the standard exemptions. The residential exemption, a local option used in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville among others, applies only to a property that is the owner’s principal residence, so it helps an owner who lives in one unit of a triple-decker but not an investor who lives elsewhere.
Because the residential exemption shifts tax onto non-owner-occupied residential property, a city that adopts it raises the effective rate on rental buildings. When you compare towns, check whether the published residential rate is before or after that shift, and ask the assessors how it applies to your parcel.
Worked example: property tax on a $2M Massachusetts apartment building
Take a 16-unit building in Worcester assessed at its market value of $2,000,000. At the FY2026 residential rate of $13.28, the yearly tax is $26,560. The same assessment would owe $24,800 in Boston at $12.40, $22,700 in Lowell at $11.35 and $13,340 in Cambridge at $6.67, though a Cambridge building with the same rents would rarely be assessed that low.
Now the sale. Suppose the Worcester building is assessed at $1,700,000, for a tax of $22,576, and a buyer pays $2,000,000. If the next January 1 assessment moves to the price, the tax becomes $26,560 at the same rate, an increase of $3,984 a year. At an illustrative 6.5% cap rate, that cut to NOI takes about $61,000 off what the buyer can pay.
That is smaller than in states that reset value at sale, because Massachusetts assessments already track market. The gap is widest for buildings assessed well below recent sale prices, which is why a buyer underwrites from the price, not from your current bill.
| Scenario | Assessed value | Yearly tax |
|---|---|---|
| Worcester, $13.28 | $2,000,000 | $26,560 |
| Boston, $12.40 | $2,000,000 | $24,800 |
| Lowell, $11.35 | $2,000,000 | $22,700 |
| Cambridge, $6.67 | $2,000,000 | $13,340 |
| Worcester before sale (assessed below price) | $1,700,000 | $22,576 |
| Worcester after value moves to sale price | $2,000,000 | $26,560 |
What to gather before you sell
A buyer will ask for the documents that explain your tax line, so have them ready.
- The last three actual tax bills and the current preliminary bills.
- Any pending abatement application or Appellate Tax Board appeal, with dates.
- Your answers to any Section 38D income and expense request.
- Whether the city applies a residential exemption, and whether your parcel receives it.
- Any betterments, liens or water and sewer charges added to the bill.
Selling an apartment building in Massachusetts
Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Massachusetts, including in Boston, Worcester and Lowell. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines. We look at your actual bills and where the assessment is likely to go, so a pending abatement or a low assessment is part of the conversation.
For the tax on the sale itself, see our page on Massachusetts capital gains tax on real estate, and for tenant rules a buyer inherits, Massachusetts landlord-tenant law for apartment owners.
