MA property tax explorer

In Massachusetts, the property tax funds most of what a town does. How much it takes, and who feels it most, differs sharply from one town to the next. These views line up all 351 cities and towns by what they tax, what their residents earn, and how far the two have drifted, so you can place your own town and read what its numbers say about it.

One word needs pinning down first, because two different numbers answer to it. The posted rate, the dollars-per-thousand figure printed on your bill, is the least useful number on it, and it usually runs the opposite way you would expect, lowest in the most expensive towns. The companion article what sets your property taxes, and what doesn't explains why. The rate on the chart below is the other one, the effective rate: what the average bill actually works out to, as a share of what an average home in that town is worth. That is the comparable number, and it is the one used here throughout.

Three views share the same set of towns. Your bill follows the rate, the average bill, and how hard that bill presses on local incomes over the decade. Town's shape shows how a town funds itself, by growing its base, voting past the cap, or leaning on state aid, and points to the towns most like it. Drift asks whether a town's property values have outrun its residents' incomes.

Not from Beverly? Add your own town with the search, or switch to the statewide view. Every town in the Commonwealth is here.