Brookline home values down, taxes likely up - Brookline, MA - Brookline TAB

Brookline home values down, taxes likely up - Brookline, MA - Brookline TAB

Jessica Scarpati, one of the TAB's great local government reporters, wrote the linked article in this week's paper. It takes some knowledge of the terms she dances around to understand that she is making reference to the "assessed value" of property in Brookline. While I know writers normally don't write their own headlines, I do have to take some issue with a glossing over of a few of the details in this article. One will notice, if they go to the Town of Brookline Assessor's Office website, that even in condo buildings with identical units assessments differ pretty significantly. For example, in my building I know the value of the condominiums (all identical) varies by over 10%. I know that there is nothing in any of our condos to warrant a 10% difference, so this "value" that Jessica refers to is somewhat ambiguous.

What cannot be ignored is the "sales value" of condominiums and homes in Brookline. We've gone through all of the numbers many times, and as we approach the end of the month we should see even more news on the state of our Brookline-specific housing market. Please read below to follow the sales history from the past few months and if there are any specific numbers I can provide to you, please ask and I will do what I can to provide.

Finally, it is important to be aware of what our "assessed values" are for our individual homes. I know from looking at my building I need to request a tax abatement from the Town. If you have any questions about this process, or need help defending your case, please consider me a resource. There are many times when we can look at relevant sales statistics and get the town to more appropriately designate their assessed value at what the market is actually bearing. This can lead to substantial tax savings (which cuts all of our monthly mortgage payments!)