Average Milford Property Tax Bill Going Up $150 Next Year

MILFORD, MA—While the tax rate is dropping slightly next year, property values are skyrocketing in Milford, and homeowners will see an increase in their real estate bills for FY2019.

Milford selectmen set $16.54 per $1,000 of the assessed property value for the residential rate and $30.88 for a commercial rate. This is a minuscule cut from FY2018, which was 16.56 for residential and 31.08 for commercial.

But with property values rising, the single family home tax payment will increase about $150 from last year, and commercial rates will go up to close to $1,200 more annually. Tax revenue for the town will increase nearly four percent over last year, which brought in $64.5 million to Milford.

That means the average single-family homeowner in Milford will pay about $5,210 for the year, compared to FY2018, in which the average homeowner paid $5,054, a hike of just over three percent. The average business owner will pay $26,520, up from just over $25,000 in FY2018. That's about a 4.6 percent increase.

Multi-family property owners feel the biggest burn in the bill due to the hot real estate market in Milford. Two-family properties will pay an average of $4,653, which is a nearly ten percent increase over last year. Three-family homeowners are going to see about a 15 percent increase.

Town Meeting in October approved a free cash transfer of $1.5 million, which helped to offset the tax rate. And this past Monday, Milford selectmen approved a 1.58 shift that dropped the tax rate for FY2019 for homes and businesses.

"A shift is putting more of the tax burden onto the commercial industrial and personal property taxpayers, thereby reducing the residential share of the levy," Jennifer Sclar, Milford town assessor, told Patch.

It was a year of major growth for the town, which boosted values across the landscape. Growth in Milford included 22 new single family homes, 15 new condo units, the addition of Milford Crossing shopping center, Reliant Medical, a 14-lot subdivision, 82 new personal property accounts and about 9 million in utility growth.

"It’s like a see-saw," said Sclar. "If values didn’t go up, the rates would have. This year, enough new value and increased value along with the offset of 1.5 million kept the rates down."

Sclar said part of the property assessment formula included analyzing the 2017 market in sales, rents and expenses, and that "sales were up considerably." FY2019 values, for instance, are adjusted in 2018 using 2017 info.

"The result is a change in value to reflect what the market did that year," said Sclar. "We are always adjusting values using the prior year's data."

Photo via Shutterstock