Barnstable Town Councilor - Precinct 1

Thanks to Ray and Pip­pa for their cre­ative and enter­tain­ing addi­tion to our vil­lage hol­i­day lights.

Real Estate Taxes

A num­ber of res­i­dents have reached out to me with con­cerns about their tax bills. 

The best place to start is to either look at your bills from last year, or prefer­ably, look up your Prop­er­ty Record on the Assessor’s sec­tion of the Town of Barn­sta­ble website.

Go to  https://town.barnstable.ma.us   then go to Depart­ments: then Asses­sor:: then: Prop­er­ty Look Up.  From there you can access your prop­er­ty infor­ma­tion, includ­ing assessed val­ues for pre­vi­ous years and your tax info for the last two years.

The present tax assess­ments are based on the real estate sales mar­ket in 2021.  This is the last year with com­plete infor­ma­tion.  On aver­age assessed val­ues rose 27% from the year before.  Assess­ments for most peo­ple rose, but the res­i­den­tial tax rate itself actu­al­ly decreased from $8.64 per $1,000 in 2022 to $7.07 per $1,000 in 2023.  Many peo­ple had their home val­ues rise and their tax­es remained about the same, while some saw high­er home val­ue increas­es and high­er taxes.

While you are look­ing at your prop­er­ty infor­ma­tion, check the bot­tom of your Tax Infor­ma­tion to be sure that, if this is your pri­ma­ry res­i­dence, you are get­ting a Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion.  This reduces your assess­ment by 20% before your tax­es are cal­cu­lat­ed.  You should have a line at the bot­tom of your tax infor­ma­tion that says: Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received.  You need to have owned your home since the begin­ning of 2022, but call the Assessor’s Office to get check all of the par­tic­u­lars.Exam­ple:

2023 Assessed Val­ue: $669,800Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 1,279.32Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Act Tax$ 109.91Town Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Town Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 3,663.56 Total: $ 5,052.79	2022 Assessed Val­ue:  $ 548,900Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 1,383.23Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Act Tax$ 111.40Town Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Town Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 3,713.31 Total: $ 5,207.94
Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received= $151,616	Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received= $119,119

You can also review your Prop­er­ty Record Card for accuracy.

If you see a prob­lem with your Prop­er­ty Record Card or you feel your assess­ment is not accu­rate, you have until the end of Jan­u­ary to file for an abatement. 

Ques­tions regard­ing: Res­i­den­tial, Vet­er­an, Senior, Blind Exemp­tions and Defer­ral appli­ca­tions can be direct­ed to the Town Asses­sor’s Office by call­ing: 508–862-4022 or email assessor@town.barnstable.ma.us
Here is a link to a recent­ly pro­duced video which explains how our prop­er­ties are assessed: AN OVERVIEW ‑VIDEOFISCAL YEAR 2023 RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TAX: