By Jeffrey Shwom

Further revelations include parcel counts remaining flat (especially multi-unit housing), high school bond servicing continuing, and a slow-down in new growth.

Another year, another expected increase in property taxes for thousands of properties within Somerville. 18,893 parcels have begun receiving the new FY2025 assessment and tax rates and a joint pamphlet mailed by the City of Somerville’s Board of Assessors and Mayor’s Office to property owners December 31, 2024.

Residential properties will see a 3.7% increase year over year and commercial 4.0%. Property values, on average, have also gone up, with a 3.8% average increase in Residential Property valuation and 6.5% Commercial Property valuation. As an example, a condominium assessed at $700,000 last year may be valued at $726,600 this year and see an average of $290 increase in property taxes. The overall city tax levy is $265 million, an increase from $245 million in FY2024.

Somerville’s Residential FY2025 tax rate is $10.91 per thousand dollars of property value and Commercial is $18.92, up from $10.52 and $18.20, respectively.

Property taxes in the city are allowed to go up by more than 2.5% for two reasons: improvements (like renovations) or inspection adjustments considered “new growth” and the Proposition 2 ½ override in place currently. In November 2016, three quarters of Somerville voters voted to allow the City “to exempt from the Proposition 2 ½ property tax limit the amounts required to pay for the bonds issues for the new state-of-the-art Somerville High School.”

From the Somerville High School Building Project’s website, “debt exclusion exempts the annual debt service to pay the $130.3 million in bonds” between 2018 and 2054, with peak payments in 2027. Debt service in FY2025 is $6,625,681.

Back to the new growth conversation, in FY2025, which runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, the city reports only $14.1 million in new growth citywide after FY2024’s top historic tax levy growth of $17.7 million and previous couple of years growth. “The new growth slowdown is caused by a reduction of demand for Lab space in the Greater Boston Area.”

An example of this is how developer Copper Mill, which owns land from the Burren to Dragon Pizza, announced during an October 30, 2024 community meeting their new plan to build hundreds of residential units instead of a four-story lab and office space. With this in mind, the Administration’s long-term strategy is “to promote new commercial growth/development goals to reduce residential tax liability and bring other community benefits.”

Within the Chief Assessor’s FY2025 Classification Hearing Report, released November 26, 2024, “The FY 2026 new growth estimate has been reduced to $9 million due to (the) falling life science market.” Other notable statistics from the report:

• Total parcel counts citywide were mostly flat year over year, seeing only a 0.97% increase in properties (from 18,711 in FY2024 to 18,893 in FY2025).
• Of this parcel count, Somerville added 109 single-family parcels and 198 residential condo units (including 64 conversions), but showed 54 fewer two-family properties and 12 fewer three-family properties. Buildings with four plus apartments stayed flat.
• 81% of properties in Somerville are residential. However, in terms of the overall tax levy, 67% will be supported through the residential tax rate and 26% through commercial tax rate.
• Of the top five FY2025 new growth projects, three of them are lab and life science spaces, with estimated $4,084,774 (29%) in estimated taxes projected for this fiscal year.

In FY2025, the City does remind property owners of exemptions and options to either reduce or defer tax payments, including up to $4,300 in residential tax exemption savings, the highest in Massachusetts. Residential tax exemption could positively impact folks that owned and occupied their Somerville home as their primary residence on January 1, 2024.

Other exemptions include those for the elderly, Veterans and the Blind, as well as those experiencing hardship. The deadline to file for Residential or/and other Statutory Exemptions is Tuesday, April 1 at 4:30 p.m. Folks can visit the City of Somerville’s Assessor’s website, call 617-625-6600 ext. 3100 or email assessing@somervillema.gov. Appeals of property tax increases must be made by Monday, February 3, 2025.