AMHERST — An average residential property tax bill in Amherst is approaching $10,000, going up slightly more than $300 from last year, as the town continues to see challenges for its commercial sector.
At the annual tax classification hearing at the Town Council’s Nov. 17 meeting, in which councilors voted unanimously to maintain a single tax rate for all properties, Principal Assessor Kimberly Mew explained that residential properties represent a growing part of the tax base.
Residential properties are estimated to be 89.1% of the tax base, up from 88.5% last year, with commercial properties falling to less than 6%.
While the downtown restaurants and stores have rebounded, other commercial sites have not.
“COVID is still playing a role a little bit in the commercial properties. People are just starting slowly to come back to offices,” Mew said.
But this could change as the pandemic recedes.
“I think it’s still recovering from that and I expect to see that number fluctuate in the coming years,” Mew said.
The average tax bill is up to $9,927.61 from $9,610.91. This is calculated with the average home assessed at $558,828, and a tax rate estimated at $16.86 per $1,000 valuation.
Last year, the average home was assessed at $539,333 and the tax rate was $17.82 per $1,000 valuation.
The town has 6,301 residential properties. It is known that about 68%, or 4,260, are owner-occupied, with 2,020 not owner-occupied.
Anticipating councilors asking about whether there could be a different method for valuing single-family homes, such as those that are owned by private companies and rented mostly to college students, Mew said that might not benefit taxpayers, and the state would find that problematic.
“If we were to value single-family homes using different methods, first of all the state would go, ‘What are you doing?”” Mew said. “The state want us to use uniform methods.”
Town Council also voted against offering an open space discount, residential exemption and small commercial exemption.