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WaylandeNews Property Assessment and Tax History
There has been press coverage recently of property tax growth in Massachusetts. The Assessors published a report indicating that average growth in town over the period from FY2000 to FY2006 was 47%. This is the official number reported by the town, but it unfortunately, includes "new growth" (that is, newly constructed homes are included as though part of the tax base we were all already paying, even though all those new taxes come directly from those homes and not pre-existing ones). If you compound the tax increases actually added to the town's total levy year to year from FY2000 to FY2006 (excluding "new growth"), the total number is 35%. There will certainly be debate over which number is right. The relevance of 47% or 35% values becomes even more tenuous when the range of tax increases are considered by neighborhood. Some areas of town have appreciated in value more (or less) than others, and so have experienced higher (or lower) percentage tax increases relative to the average. Given the interest in tax growth, you might want to know the number for your property. How much has your tax growth been from 2000 to 2007? How much has your assessment increased over that time period?
Enter an address in the field below. If you enter a partial address, the result will be all addresses containing the text (e.g., enter "Main" and you'll get addresses on Main St.) Up to 15 properties will be displayed at a time. Do not enter the "Road" or "Lane" at the end of the address. N/A will be displayed when information is unavailable. We have done our best to provide as accurate a tool as possible, but please do inform us if you find any errors in the data.
The chart for each property will show year by year assessment data, tax bill data, year by year tax percentage growth, accumulated percentage growth since 2000 and an annualized rate of growth (that is, the average rate experienced over the time period). You will find that the tax growth on most homes exceeds inflation, and may wonder why. In a period in which we are facing an aging workforce (and large number of retirees), skyrocketing health insurance and utility costs, an increase in state mandated education programs, reduced local aid, etc.) it should not come as a surprise that our cost growth has been higher. To view a comparison of Wayland tax growth versus other towns across the state, click here. A few notes:
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We have not yet incorporated information on abatement data, so in a small number of cases actual taxes may be lower.
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Note that if an address is comprised of multiple parcels, these have been aggregated into one entry (this affects a very small number of properties). If you live at such a parcel that is not broken out into individual parcels, and would like information for individual pieces, please contact us. Alternatively, you might try Alan Reiss' tax tool (note: this requires a large file download, and works only on a Windows PC), which handles parcels by parcel-ID.