What does the Assessing Department do?

As the basis for apportioning the taxes that are raised by the Town, the Assessing Department is required by Massachusetts Law to maintain detailed records describing the real estate and personal property within the town and to manually arrive at a professional estimate of its full current market value. On every fifth year, the methods used in arriving at these estimates of current market value, are reviewed in detail and certified by the State Department of Revenue. In addition to assessing approximately 9,000 parcels of real property and 1,000 personal property accounts, the Assessing Department annually assesses 20,000 motor vehicle excise accounts and 1,600 boat excise accounts.