It’s that time of the year – new tax rates, new assessments and therefore new property taxes.  Here is a summary by town of the new tax rates as well as the change from the 2011 tax rate:

2012 Town Tax Rates (per thousand)

• Boston – $13.04, up $.25 from 2011
• Brookline – $11.40, up $.10 from 2011
• Concord – $13.58, up $.39 from 2011
• Dover – $11.92, up $.22 from 2011
• Framingham – $16.94, up $.91 from 2011
• Lexington – $14.97, up $.76 from 2011
• Lincoln – $13.81, up $1.44 from 2011 (the highest tax rate increase from 2011)
• Natick – $13.91, up $1.31 from 2011
• Needham – $10.95, up $.05 from 2011 (the lowest tax rate)
• Newton – $11.17, up $.27 from 2011
• Sherborn – $18.22, up $.50 from 2011
• Sudbury – $17.60, up $.57 from 2011
• Wayland – $19.01, down $.34 from 2011 (the highest tax rate)
• Wellesley – $11.48, up $.05 from 2011
• Weston – $12.11, up $.72 from 2011
• Westwood – $14.48, up $.65 from 2011
• Winchester – $12.55, up $.45 from 2011

Just for some basic stats, the average tax rate is $13.95 per thousand, and the median tax rate is $13.58 per thousand.  Needham has the lowest tax rate of $10.95 per thousand, Wayland has the highest tax rate of $19.01 per thousand, and Lincoln had the highest tax rate increase from 2011 – up $1.44.

In addition as you can see, almost all of the tax rates increased this year.  The exception was Wayland, which saw a decrease of $.34 in its tax rate. An increase in Wayland’s tax rate this year could have had a significant adverse effect on property sales so this decrease should help.  And in terms of its assessments, some went up and some went down.  In analyzing a random sampling* of properties, 69.5% of the assessments went down this year from last, and so this should help too.

The tax rate is important information to have when buying a home – something to keep in the back of your mind.  In my opinion, however, it’s not the reason to buy or not to buy in a certain town.  That being said, if I equally liked a home in Wayland and one in Weston and both had similar list prices and assessments, the discrepancy in the town tax rate and therefore property taxes, might be the deciding factor for which home to buy.  And in this case since the Weston tax rate is approximately $7 per thousand less than Wayland’s, I would likely choose the home in Weston – again all other things being equal.

But these are my thoughts – what are yours?  Does a town’s tax rate rank as an important factor when deciding in which town to live?  I can’t wait to hear….

* I used a random sampling of 50 properties at a variety of price points, and therefore a larger sample size could reflect differences in the percentage of assessments that went down.