Leominster's Tax Rate Keeps Falling. So Why Does the Bill Keep Rising?

For fiscal 2026, Leominster set a tax rate of $13.67 per $1,000 of assessed value. That is the lowest rate the city has posted in at least fifteen years, and nearly six dollars below the $19.73 rate of FY2017. Over those same ten years, the average single-family tax bill went from $4,564.73 to $6,493.53. The rate dropped about 30%. The bill rose about 42%.

If you're comparing Leominster with nearby towns, or deciding between a single-family and a two-family here, the rate on a listing sheet is close to useless on its own. In Leominster the rate is an output. What sets your bill is how your property's value moved compared with everyone else's, and the city's own FY2026 Classification and Taxation Hearing booklet shows that in the most recent certified year, that gap hit multi-family owners hardest.

The bill that shows up after you close

Timing matters most for buyers under contract this fall. In Massachusetts, property is assessed as of January 1 before the fiscal year begins, so the FY2027 values that will appear on this winter's bills reflect the market as of January 1, 2026. The city's FAQ notes that third-quarter bills, which are the first "actual" bills carrying the new rate, are typically mailed at the end of December.

So if you close in November, the tax figure you underwrote probably came from the FY2026 rate applied to an FY2026 assessment. The first bill in your name could carry both a new value and a new rate. The Secretary of the Commonwealth's property tax abatement guidance says abatement applications are generally due with the first actual bill, which for quarterly towns is the third-quarter payment, "usually by February 1st." That leaves a short window, and it lands on new owners during their first winter in the house. This is general information and not tax or legal advice. If you think your assessment is wrong, confirm deadlines and options with the assessor's office or a qualified professional.

Leominster sets the levy first, then backs into the rate

This is why the falling rate tells you so little. Under Proposition 2½, the city decides how much total property tax to raise, and the basic rate is whatever number spreads that amount across the city's assessed value. The City Council's annual choice covers how that levy is divided among property classes, which comes up below. The FY2026 booklet lays out the math step by step:

1. Start from the FY2025 levy limit of $96,775,106.
2. Add the allowed 2.5% increase, which is $2,419,378.
3. Add new growth from new construction and improvements, which is $1,020,677.
4. That gives an FY2026 levy limit of $100,215,161.

The city then raised less than that limit. The actual FY2026 levy was $94,708,997, up from $90,834,284 the year before, an increase of about 4.3%. Total taxable value rose 7.0% that year, from about $6.47 billion to $6.93 billion.

When the pool of value grows 7% and the dollars being raised grow about 4%, the rate has to fall, and it did, from $14.03 to $13.67. Because the total levy still rose, the drop in the rate can't tell you whether your own bill went up. That depends on whether your property rose faster or slower than the 7% citywide average.

Who carried the 7%

The same booklet breaks out FY2026 assessed values by property type, and the classes moved very differently. Pair each class's average value change with the 2.6% drop in the rate and you get a rough estimate of how that class's tax bills moved, on average:

The bill column is class-wide arithmetic, so individual properties will land above or below it. It lines up with what the city reported for single-family homes, though. The average single-family value rose from $442,260 to $475,021, and the average bill rose $288.63, or about 4.7%.

For an investor, the two-family row is the important one. A two-family that matched its class average saw its tax bill grow about twice as fast as the typical single-family's. That happened in a year when the headline rate fell. Taken as a whole, the residential class rose 7.9% while commercial rose 2.5%, so more of the levy shifted onto homes. If you're underwriting a two- or three-family off a seller's FY2025 or FY2026 bill, treat that figure as a starting point that may already be out of date.

Two choices the city makes every year

The levy cap is state law. Two other things that shape your bill are local choices, and both come up again before this winter's bills go out.

The single rate. Massachusetts lets cities shift part of the tax load from residential property onto commercial, industrial and personal property. Leominster has kept one rate for everyone. On November 24, 2025, the City Council voted by roll call to keep a residential factor of 1 after the Finance Committee recommended a single rate, with Chief Assessor Rena Gagne presenting the valuation trends, according to Citizen Portal's summary of the meeting.

The booklet shows what the alternative would have cost. At the maximum 1.50 shift, the FY2026 residential rate would have dropped to $12.26 and the commercial rate would have climbed to $20.50. On a $2 million commercial property, that adds $13,665 a year. For the average single-family at $475,021, my math puts the savings at roughly $670 a year. Every year the council keeps the single rate, homeowners and commercial owners pay the same per-dollar rate, and the table above shows that homes have been gaining value faster.

The taxes the city leaves uncollected. Leominster consistently levies less than Prop 2½ allows. The booklet's history shows the city below its limit every year from FY2017 through FY2026, by between about $5.2 million and $6.4 million a year, with $5,506,164 left unraised in FY2026. At the FY2026 budget presentation in May 2025, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said that capacity had built up gradually since around 2005 to 2007, News Link Live reported. The same report quoted Council President Mark Bodanza:

"It's good for the taxpayer. Those are taxes we didn't collect that we were able to legally collect based on the [Proposition] 2½ statute."

That cushion matters for anyone holding property here long term. It means Leominster has room to raise its levy without an override vote. A town already taxing at its limit doesn't. The cushion has also been shrinking a little, from $5.94 million unraised in FY2025 to $5.51 million in FY2026.

What the FY2027 budget already tells you

The FY2027 rate hasn't been set as of this writing, so I won't predict it. The budget it has to fund is already known. On May 26, 2026, the City Council unanimously backed Mayor Mazzarella's $186,710,840 FY2027 budget, according to News Link Live. Finance Committee Chairperson Mark Bodanza described it as an increase of about $8 million and pointed to "$5.5 million in levy capacity that has not been taxed under Proposition 2½." City Comptroller Jennifer Reddington told the council, "It is a tough market out there for budgets as everybody has seen over the headlines in the past few weeks. We are no different."

The mayor's FY2027 budget projects $97,632,193 in property tax revenue, up $3,673,196 from the FY2026 estimate, includes a 2.5% levy allowance of $2,505,379, and doesn't call for an override. When the FY2027 values come out, compare your property type's appreciation with the growth in the city's total assessed value. If your class rose faster than the city's total value, your share of that $97.6 million goes up.

The FY2026 booklet also flags something smaller to keep an eye on. Leominster has seven tax increment financing agreements on the books, and two of them expire in FY2027. When a TIF steps up to full value, that property pays a bigger share of the levy.

Frequently asked questions

Is the tax figure on a Leominster listing what I'll pay? Usually it reflects the most recent certified year. For anything bought this fall, that means FY2026 values at $13.67. The FY2027 rate and values replace it on the third-quarter bill, which the city typically mails at the end of December.

Does a lower rate next year mean lower taxes? Not necessarily. Over the ten years in the city's booklet, the rate fell nearly every year while the average single-family bill rose every year.

Why would a two-family's taxes rise faster than a single-family's? In FY2026, two-family assessed values rose 12.5% against 7.6% for single-family homes. Since everyone pays the same rate, the faster-appreciating class picks up a larger share of the levy.

I spend a lot of time on numbers like these, because a carrying cost that's off by a few hundred dollars a year can turn a good two-family into a thin one. If you're weighing a Leominster purchase this winter, or you want to know how your current property's assessment compares with its class average, Doug Tammelin can run the numbers with you before the new bills arrive. Get your instant home valuation and we'll start there.