Tool
What this means for your tax bill
How will a typical Brookline tax bill change between now and 2040?
For a home whose value moves with the town average, about 2.8% a year on average to FY2040 in the base case. Another override or a new school building would add to that; faster new growth would trim it slightly.
- All else equal, a tax bill rises 2.5% a year. It grows faster or slower only when your home's value rises faster or slower than the town's, when voters approve an override or a debt exclusion, or when a debt exclusion is paid off.
- In the base case, bills rise about 4.4% a year to FY2030 as the May 2026 override phases in, then about 2.2% a year to FY2040, a little under 2.5%, because payments on school building debt stay fixed while new property helps pay them.
- In FY2040 the median single-family bill is $30,884, up from $20,904 in FY2026; the median condominium bill is $7,332, up from $4,963; and the average rental apartment carries $7,788 a unit, up from $5,271.
- Another override, if pay runs a point high, would come in FY2028 and add about $1,885 to the median single-family bill by FY2040; bills would then grow at the same rate as in the base case, from a higher level. A Baker School debt exclusion, an illustration only, would raise the later growth to 2.4% a year, about $559 more on the median single-family bill in FY2035.
- Faster new growth spreads the fixed cost of school building debt over more property, so it lowers a typical bill slightly: about $186 on the median single-family bill by FY2040, too little to move the growth rate.
Skip to the calculator to see your own bill's forecast
How a tax bill is set
Brookline decides how much it may collect in total, and that total is shared among every property in town in proportion to its assessed value. Under Proposition 2½ the total can grow about 2.5% a year, plus new growth and any override or debt exclusion voters approve. So your bill changes for three reasons:
- The town's total changes: your bill goes up, or occasionally down. The 2.5% a year, overrides and new debt exclusions all raise it. It falls only when a debt exclusion is paid off.
- New property arrives: your bill goes down, slightly. New growth is taxed on its own value, so it raises the total without raising anyone else's bill. It does help with debt exclusions, which are fixed dollar amounts: the more property there is, the smaller each home's share of the same debt.
- Your value moves differently from everyone else's: your bill goes up or down. If your home's value rises faster than the town's, your share, and your bill, rises; if it rises more slowly, your bill falls behind.
Rising values on their own do not raise the total. When every home gains 10%, the tax rate falls to match, and the total stays the same.
Owners who live in their homes get the residential exemption, which takes a fixed amount off each home's assessed value. Rental property does not. An average apartment in a building of four or more units was assessed at $515,579 in FY2026 and carried $5,271 of tax, about $439 a month: more than the median owner-occupied condominium, on a lower value. The landlord pays it. Rents are set by the market rather than by the tax bill, but over time the tax is one of the costs rents have to cover.
The figures on this page leave out the Community Preservation Act surcharge, which voters approved in 2021 for open space, historic preservation, affordable housing and recreation. It is 1% of the tax after the residential exemption, about $209 on the median single-family bill in FY2026, with exemptions for lower-income owners. Because it moves with the bill, adding it would raise every figure here by about 1% without changing the comparisons.
What has happened since FY2018
From FY2018 to FY2026 the median single-family bill rose about 7.3% a year, from $11,882 to $20,904. The median condominium bill rose about 2.9% a year, from $3,933 to $4,963. Three things drove that: the overrides voted in 2018 and 2023; debt exclusions for the High School, Driscoll, Pierce, the Newbury College land and the fire stations; and single-family values rising much faster than condominium values (about 6.0% a year against 3.0%), which shifted tax from condominiums to single-family homes. These figures are the Town's own medians, which include the residential exemption for owner-occupied homes.
The next fifteen years
The chart follows a typical home whose value moves with the town average, along four paths:
- Base case. The May 2026 override phases in over FY2027 to FY2029, and voters approve nothing further.
- Another override. Pay runs one point higher than the base case, the largest risk among the costs Brookline sets, so the budget runs short in FY2028, and voters approve an override of $22.2 million that year to close the gap through FY2040.
- Baker School debt exclusion. An illustration of what a school building vote adds, not a proposal: a Baker project at the same net cost as Pierce ($210 million less an estimated $37 million in state reimbursement), repaid over 30 years at 4%, about $10.0 million a year from FY2031.
- Faster new growth. New growth at the rate of the fastest-growing fifth of Massachusetts towns, 2.03% of the levy a year instead of 1.23%, from homes and commercial space in equal parts.
A typical tax bill to FY2040
The Town’s FY2026 median bill, owner-occupied (with the residential exemption), or the average rental apartment’s (no exemption), for a home whose value moves with the town average. Every type of home is assumed to gain value at the same rate. Four paths; the base case assumes no further votes. The legend gives each path’s average growth a year, FY2026–40.
The chart assumes every type of home gains value at the same rate. That has not been true: from FY2018 to FY2026 single-family values rose about 6.0% a year and condominium values 3.0%, which moved tax from condominiums to single-family homes. If that continues, single-family bills will grow faster than shown here, and condominium and apartment bills more slowly.
For the median single-family home, owner-occupied:
| Median single-family bill | FY2030 | FY2035 | FY2040 | Growth a year, FY2026–40 | Growth a year, FY2030–40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base case | $24,827 | $27,641 | $30,884 | 2.8% | 2.2% |
| Another override | $26,290 | $29,304 | $32,769 | 3.3% | 2.2% |
| Baker School debt exclusion | $24,827 | $28,200 | $31,411 | 3.0% | 2.4% |
| Faster new growth | $24,774 | $27,517 | $30,698 | 2.8% | 2.2% |
In the base case, by type of home:
| Base case | FY2026 | FY2030 | FY2035 | FY2040 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median single-family home | $20,904 | $24,827 | $27,641 | $30,884 |
| Median condominium | $4,963 | $5,894 | $6,562 | $7,332 |
| Average rental apartment, per unit | $5,271 | $6,260 | $6,970 | $7,788 |
Most of the base case's increase comes early: the May 2026 override adds its three steps by FY2029, so a typical bill grows about 4.4% a year to FY2030. After that it grows about 2.2% a year, a little less than 2.5%, because existing debt exclusion payments are spread over a growing town. Those payments stay about level. The Town's debt schedule raises them from $35.4 million in FY2027 to about $36.7 million in FY2029, as borrowing voters have already approved begins, and holds them there through FY2033, the last year it shows. Beyond that, the Town's bond disclosures show payments on all of its existing debt falling by less than $3 million between FY2033 and FY2040, so at most a small part of the excluded debt is paid off before FY2040; most of it runs to the mid-2040s, and the Pierce and fire station bonds to 2050. The forecast keeps the payments level to FY2040 and adds no new debt exclusions.
The Baker example raises growth after FY2030 from 2.2% to 2.4% a year. It adds about $559 a year to the median single-family bill and about $133 to the median condominium bill. Faster new growth saves the median single-family home about $186 a year by FY2040. That is small for any one household, but it is the only one of the four paths that lowers bills while also giving the Town more to spend. Its larger effect is on whether another override is needed, which depends on what gets built: see what commercial building does to the budget.
Try your own bill
The same four paths, applied to your home:
Your bill
Enter your home’s FY2026 assessed value, or your FY2026 tax bill. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
How sure this is
This is a projection for a home whose value keeps pace with the town average, and it assumes every type of home gains value at the same rate. An individual bill can rise faster or slower if that home's value does, as single-family bills did from FY2018 to FY2026. The residential exemption is assumed to keep its current share of value. The paths use the base case's revenue forecast, so anything that changes the town's total tax, such as overrides or new debt exclusions not shown here, would change these figures. The Forecast Explorer shows how the budget, rather than any one bill, responds to each assumption.
Go deeper
- How Brookline's budget works: Where does the Town's money come from, what is it allowed to collect, and what does "sustainable" mean?
- Glossary: What do the budget terms on these pages mean?
- Forecast Explorer: What happens to the budget under your own assumptions?
Last updated 2026-10-08. What has changed.