Reported by us | South Shore

Hanson's average single-family tax bill rises $427 as the first South Shore towns set fiscal 2027 rates

East Bridgewater, Halifax, Hanson and Hull have their new rates, and the other 22 South Shore communities are still to come, including Abington and Duxbury, where voters approved overrides this spring.

By the South Shore 360 News Desk | Published Nov. 14, 2026 | Last verified Nov. 14, 2026, 8:18 p.m. ET

The average single-family property tax bill in Hanson is going up $427 for fiscal 2027, the biggest increase so far among the South Shore towns that have set their new rates.

The owner of an average single-family home in Hanson will pay $7,538 for the year, about $36 a month more than last year, according to figures from the state Division of Local Services. Hanson is one of four South Shore towns whose fiscal 2027 tax rates appear in the state's data as of Saturday, Nov. 14, along with East Bridgewater, Halifax and Hull.

The average bill went up in all four towns, even though Hull, Halifax and East Bridgewater lowered their tax rates, because rising home values more than made up the difference. Hanson's rate went up slightly, and its voters approved a $630,000 override in May.

The other 22 communities South Shore 360 covers, from Brockton and Plymouth to Avon and Plympton, had no fiscal 2027 rate in the state's data on Saturday. Under state law, a town's assessors may not fix a tax rate until the state revenue commissioner approves it, so a town that has already held its classification hearing can still be waiting on its rate. Abington and Duxbury are among the 22, and both passed overrides this spring that raise how much they may tax.

The four towns with new rates

All four towns tax homes and businesses at the same rate. Here is what the state's figures show for the average single-family home in each, with the change from fiscal 2026:

Hanson: a tax rate of $13.12 per $1,000 of value, up from $13.06; an average value of $574,530, up 5.5%; an average bill of $7,538, up $427, or 6%.
Hull: a rate of $10.30, down from $10.81; an average value of $779,490, up 8.1%; an average bill of $8,029, up $234, or 3%.
East Bridgewater: a rate of $13.60, down from $13.69; an average value of $559,256, up 3.3%; an average bill of $7,606, up $196, or 2.6%.
Halifax: a rate of $13.46, down from $14.08; an average value of $568,733, up 6.9%; an average bill of $7,655, up $162, or 2.2%.

East Bridgewater's assessors put the estimated average bill at $7,626 in the presentation for their Oct. 19 classification hearing, where they recommended keeping a single rate and no residential exemption. The state's final figure for the town is $7,606.

Hanson's override

Hanson voters approved a $630,000 Proposition 2 1/2 override on May 16 by a vote of 1,001 to 580, to add fire and police positions, according to the result the town reported to the state. A year earlier, on May 17, 2025, voters rejected a $3 million override for the schools, police, fire and other departments, 741 to 1,172.

Under Proposition 2 1/2, the state's tax limit law, a town's levy limit grows 2.5% a year plus the taxes on new construction and other new growth, and voters can approve more through an override. For fiscal 2027, Hanson's 2.5% increase and its $381,075 in new growth would have brought the limit to about $29.8 million, by our math, and the state lists it at $30,441,332, the formula figure plus the $630,000.

Hanson's total tax levy rose about $1.8 million, to $30.9 million, and the override accounts for about 35% of that increase. The levy can run above the $30.4 million limit because the state's limit figure leaves out the debt and capital exclusions voters have approved, and with them the state puts Hanson's maximum levy at $30,917,718.

Overrides elsewhere this spring

Two other South Shore towns approved overrides for fiscal 2027, and three turned them down, according to the votes the towns reported to the state.

In Abington, voters approved six of seven override questions on May 16, for $3,054,640 in all. The largest were $1,622,114 for the schools and $875,486 for police, followed by $275,514 for the fire department, $261,094 for public works, $13,964 for the library and $6,468 for the council on aging. A $358,380 question for town hall failed, 1,087 to 1,412.

In Duxbury, voters approved a $1,891,916 override for town and school operating budgets by a vote of 2,189 to 1,936 on March 28, a year after they rejected a $5.8 million override.

Easton voters rejected two overrides on April 28: $1,415,000 for police and fire personnel, 1,161 to 2,672, and $700,000 for public works personnel and sidewalks, 1,021 to 2,805. Pembroke voters rejected a $2 million operating override on May 18 to join South Shore Technical High School's regional district, 1,148 to 2,291. Whitman voters rejected a $500,000 override on May 16, 425 to 899.

An override raises the most a town may levy, so what the votes add to the average bill in Abington and Duxbury will be clear when their fiscal 2027 rates are set.

The other 22 communities' bills in fiscal 2026

Before a rate is set, a town's select board or council holds a tax classification hearing. Its purpose, as Braintree's presentation for its hearing last December put it, is "to apportion the tax levy to be raised amongst residential and commercial classes of property."

In fiscal 2026, nine of the 26 South Shore communities taxed commercial and industrial property at a higher rate than homes: Avon, Braintree, Brockton, Easton, Hanover, Holbrook, Stoughton, West Bridgewater and Weymouth. Avon's commercial rate of $28.21 was more than twice its residential rate of $13.35.

The fiscal 2026 average single-family bill in each town still waiting on its new rate:

Abington $7,536
Avon $7,643
Braintree $7,306
Bridgewater $7,420
Brockton $5,591
Duxbury $12,963
Easton $9,441
Hanover $10,149
Hingham $14,313
Holbrook $6,468
Kingston $8,714
Marshfield $7,731
Norwell $13,675
Pembroke $7,521
Plymouth $7,731
Plympton $9,007
Rockland $7,603
Scituate $10,191
Stoughton $7,157
West Bridgewater $7,433
Weymouth $6,208
Whitman $6,861

Across all 26 communities, fiscal 2026 bills ran from $5,591 in Brockton to $14,313 in Hingham. The state also compares each town's average bill with its residents' per capita income: in Brockton the bill equals about 22% of per capita income, and in Hingham about 9%.

What the averages leave out

The state's average is the tax on an average single-family value at the town's rate, so it does not include the Community Preservation Act surcharge added to bills in towns that have adopted the act. State law lets that surcharge run as high as 3% of the real estate tax levy and keeps it outside the Proposition 2 1/2 limit, and it lets towns exempt from it homeowners whose income would qualify them for low income housing or for low or moderate income senior housing. In Hull, the assessors take applications for an exemption from the town's surcharge. Halifax voters turned the act down in 2024, 2,064 to 2,643, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's results.

Individual bills can also come in lower, because state law offers property tax exemptions, applied for through the local assessors, to some older homeowners, some veterans, blind residents and other groups it lists. Those personal exemptions are not in the averages, while the town-wide residential and senior means-tested exemptions, where a town has them, already are. Hull and Halifax take fiscal 2027 exemption applications through April 1, 2027, and Halifax and East Bridgewater also offer the state's tax deferral for older homeowners, which puts off the tax instead of forgiving it.

Some towns let older residents work off part of their tax by volunteering for the town, up to $2,000 a year under state law. Halifax's Council on Aging runs a senior tax work-off program, and its sign-up for fiscal 2027 closed Aug. 4. Plymouth holds the lottery for its Senior and Veterans Property Tax Work Off Program at the Select Board meeting Tuesday, Nov. 17, and its Human Resources Department, 508-747-1620, ext. 10197, answers questions about it.

A homeowner who thinks an assessment is too high can apply in writing to the assessors for an abatement, on the state's form. Under state law, the deadline is the day the first installment of the year's actual tax bill is due without interest, so it differs from town to town. Halifax, which bills twice a year, set Nov. 2, the due date of its first fiscal 2027 bill, as its abatement deadline, and that window has closed for this year. East Bridgewater bills quarterly, and its assessors planned to mail the actual bills at the end of December, with the first of them due Feb. 1, 2027, which would make that the deadline if the bills go out on schedule. Questions go to the assessors: East Bridgewater at 508-378-1609, Halifax at 781-293-1721 and Hull at 781-925-2205.

South Shore 360 will add each town's fiscal 2027 rate and average bill as the state posts it.

Label: Reported by us.

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