Swampscott housing values have risen over the past year, but taxes are also expected to increase in the coming year, according to Director of Assessing Paul Plouffe.

Plouffe spoke at Thursday night’s Select Board meeting as part of the board’s review of anticipated revenues and expenditures. He said the town’s total taxable value for fiscal year 2026 is $5,021,639,348. In the 2025 fiscal year, the total taxable value was $4,824,619,335.

“As we stand now, the total taxable value is well above $5 billion,” Plouffe said. “That’s an increase of about 4% from FY25.”

Housing values tend to rise each year due to a variety of factors, including increased demand, interest rates, limited supply, zoning law changes and the overall economic health. 

According to Homes.com, the median house price in Swampscott is around $750,000, which is higher than the overall country’s average. Zillow lists Swampscott’s average home value at $804,700, which is up by .8% over the past year. Movoto indicates that 25 homes were sold in Swampscott in October alone, which is up from 21 last year.

Plouffe said the average assessed value of a single-family home for the 2026 fiscal year is about $951,366.

“That means that the average single family will see an increase in their taxes based on what we know now,” Plouffe said. “That average will go up to $11,000 a year.”

Assessors track sales of properties and the overall supply and demand in addition to property size, conditions and interest rates to decide housing values. 

“It’s a process that’s always changing,” Plouffe said. “I’ve had a lot of condos that have come down in value. Some have gone up. Some have stayed the same, same with single-families.”

When Plouffe started last year, he said he worked on exemptions and abatements. He reviewed ocean front neighborhood properties, through which he “found things that needed to be corrected and rectified.”

“The ocean front neighborhoods, I think, are the most complicated neighborhoods in town,” Plouffe said. “As I try to review further as we kind of move in town with some of the other neighborhoods, hopefully things will get a little bit smoother. I certainly did not anticipate that things would be as complicated as they were. Swampscott is a very complex town.”

He said he is now “set to move forward in a better direction.” Plouffe said he is most concerned with consistency and uniformity. He expects a more systematic understanding to be done within three to five years with a full time assessor, however Plouffe is only hired currently to work 15 hours a week.

“Right now, some of it’s a bit of a hodge podge, and some of it goes back decades,” Plouffe said. “This problem has been there for a long time. With the turn over of assessors every year or so, that hasn’t helped. You want fairness and equity, but to get fairness and equity you have to start reviewing things and looking at things, and that’s a process. It’s not going to happen in one year. It’s not going to happen in a few months.”

Plouffe also said the new growth value for the 2026 fiscal year is estimated at $41,298,152, with projected tax levy growth of $526,043. This is an increase of $125,804 from the 2025 fiscal year levy growth of $400,239, or about 31.4%. The increase is attributed to a review of sales and permits, Plouffe said.

“How we look at growth, we’re looking at building permits, any new information,” Plouffe said. “Any changes in the property that we’re now assessing that we hadn’t assessed in the past constitutes new growth.”

The proposed single tax rate, based on the $65,341,842 estimated tax levy, against the taxable value around town, is $13.01. Historically, Swampscott has opted for the maximum tax shift onto industrial property, Plouffe said. If the board does the same this year, the residential tax rate would be about $12.33, up from last year’s $11.47. The commercial tax rate is projected to be about $22.88, up from $21.77 last year.

“These numbers might change a little bit once we have the final,” Plouffe said.

All information presented to the Select Board is estimated pending submission and certification from the Department of Revenue. The Board of Assessors will need to submit value and growth reports. Plouffe also noted that “we are coming into very uncertain times with the economy and the market, so there is no projecting what will happen in the future.”