The $103.6M town-school budget is now set and the tax assessor’s office plans to send out property tax bills today. Property taxes are due by August 3. So how much will your taxes go up? Or down?
In large measure it depends upon what you own and where you live.
Branford has one of the largest condo markets in the state. There are roughly 3,600 residential condos in town. Since the last reval five years ago, the condo market has dropped considerably. As a result property taxes on condos in this reval year have dropped as well.
“The current value on the condos helped to bring the grand list down,” Tax Assessor Barbara Neal said when asked recently about the condo market.
The mill rate came in at 26.93 mills and that is the rate upon which a homeowner’s taxes are based. Click here to read about the budget.
The following figures are based on final numbers compiled by Jim Finch, the town’s Finance Director and are based on the Board of Finance’s approval of the budget in May when it set the mill rate for the 2015 – 16 tax year. These are sample properties.
Low Condo Market Affects Grand List
If you live in a condo assessed at $110,300 – say, for example, Jefferson Woods in Branford Hills – your taxes went up by $71 from last year, from $2,823 to $2,894, or $6 more each month. This year your taxes dropped by $50 from 2,894 to 2,844 or a ‑1.73 percent decline.
If you live in a condo at Turtle Bay (See top photo) in a unit now assessed at $158,400, (last year the same unit was assessed at $178,400) your current tax payment of $4,681 will go down by $415 to $4,266 or a ‑8.87 percent drop.
If you live in Short Beach on Highland Avenue in a home now assessed at $241,800, your taxes went up to $6,512 this year, a $340 increase over last year’s taxes or a 5.51 percent increase.
If you live are on Buena Vista Road in Stony Creek and your property is assessed at $372,500, your new tax bill will be $10,031, down ‑0.08 percent over last year’s taxes. Last year you paid $10,039.
If you live on Featherbed Lane, and your property is assessed at $188,800 for the 2016 tax year, your taxes will go up from $4,860 to $5,084 or a 4.61 percent increase.
On the Waterfront
Waterfront property is costlier, of course, but this year not as costly as in prior years. If you live on Blackstone Avenue, in Pine Orchard, on a property assessed at $1.3 million, your tax bill will rise from $36,571 a year to $36,970, an increase of $399 or 1.09 percent. Prior years have been higher.
If you live on Pine Orchard Road, one of the upscale addresses in town, the property tax you paid in 2015, $31,071 will rise 15 percent to $35,787 or $4,716 a year more than last year.
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