Several municipalities in Massachusetts offer a reduction in property tax burden for qualified owners who live in a property as their primary residence. This is known colloquially as the Residential Exemption.

Below is a list of the Greater Boston municipalities that offer a residential exemption, along with each municipality’s deadline for FY2026 (the deadlines are all March 31 or April 1), and links to instructions & applications. Your residential exemption would apply for this current fiscal year (which runs from July 2025 to June 2026), with the application deadline timed with the end of the third quarter of the fiscal year. Note that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual order of deadlines and date-of-occupation requirements became more flexible, but they have since returned to the standard cycle.

• In most cases, you will need to have closed on and owner-occupied your home as of the beginning of the last calendar year (i.e., January 1, 2025).

• For most towns and cities, you will need to provide documentation to prove your primary residency, e.g., tax returns, driver license, vehicle registration, utility bills. If you own the property in a trust, you, the owner-occupant, must also be a beneficiary of said trust and will need to provide sufficient documentation.

• The exemption will typically appear as a credit applied to your 4th quarter tax bill.

City of Boston. File by April 1, 2026 and must have have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $4,353.

Boston is the only municipality which allows for owner occupancy after January 1, 2025 (but still must be before July 1, 2025).

City of Cambridge. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $3,403.

City of Somerville. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $4,578.

Somerville’s residential exemption is the highest in the Commonwealth.

Town of Brookline. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $3,634.

City of Watertown. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $3,961.

City of Waltham. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $3,271.

City of Malden. File by March 31, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025.

Town of Concord. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025.

City of Chelsea. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $3,203.

City of Everett. File by April 1, 2026 and must have owned & occupied the home as your primary residence as of January 1, 2025, for a tax burden exemption of up to $2,582.

• Many municipalities, including and in addition to those listed above, also offer statutory reductions in property tax burdens for seniors who meet certain income/asset/employment status requirements, the blind, surviving spouses who have never remarried, and disabled veterans.

• Several towns on the Cape & Islands also offer residential exemptions (Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Barnstable, Tisbury, West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, and Nantucket).

• Towns which have considered or studied the residential exemption, but chosen not to implement it, include Newton, Medford, Lexington, Arlington, Quincy, Framingham, and several towns on the Cape.