Property tax in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

By Brent Chudoba, editor Updated September 23, 2026

In Barnstable County, the property tax bill comes from your town's tax collector (each of the 15 Cape Cod towns bills and collects its own property tax). Taken from Barnstable County's own pages, checked September 23, 2026.

The median property tax bill in Barnstable County, Massachusetts is $4,239 a year, which is about 0.67% of the county's median home value of $629,000. That effective rate is lower than the typical Massachusetts county (1.06%) and lower than the national median (0.81%). These are American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024); your own bill depends on your home's assessed value and any exemptions.

Who sends the property tax bill in Barnstable County, and how do you pay it?

The bill comes from your town's tax collector (each of the 15 Cape Cod towns bills and collects its own property tax). The value it is based on is set by a separate office, your town's board of assessors, which is who to ask if the value looks wrong.

In Massachusetts, property tax is assessed and billed by each city or town, not by the county. Barnstable County government does not send homeowners a bill; it receives a county tax assessed on the 15 towns, which the towns raise through their own tax rates. Due dates therefore vary by town: Orleans, for example, bills quarterly, while Chatham bills twice a year. Exemptions and any residential exemption are granted by your town's assessors. The homestead you can record at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds protects your home against certain creditor claims; it is not a property tax exemption.

When are property taxes due in Barnstable County?

Massachusetts communities use one of three billing systems. On quarterly billing, installments are due August 1, November 1, February 1 and May 1. On semi-annual preliminary billing, the preliminary bill is due October 1 (or November 1, or 30 days after mailing if later, when it is mailed after August 1) and the actual bill is due April 1. On standard semi-annual billing, the first half is due November 1 and the rest May 1; if the bill is mailed after October 1, payment is due 30 days after mailing instead. Check which system your city or town uses.

Barnstable County does not publish the due dates for its bill on its own pages (checked September 23, 2026), so we do not print any here. The dates on your statement are the ones that bind you; who sends which bill is covered above.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Barnstable County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Barnstable County's average effective rate of 0.67% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Home market value

Estimated property tax: $4,214 / year

Property tax in Barnstable County at a glance

Barnstable County, Massachusetts property tax (Census ACS, reviewed September 23, 2026)
Measure	Value
Median annual property tax	$4,239
Median home value	$629,000
Effective tax rate	0.67%
Typical Massachusetts county rate	1.06%
National median county rate	0.81%

Effective rate = median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

How does Barnstable County compare in Massachusetts?

Among Massachusetts's 14 counties, Barnstable County has the 11th highest effective property-tax rate: 10 rank higher and 3 rank lower. That is on the lower side for Massachusetts. Nationally, it ranks 1991st of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every Massachusetts county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Barnstable County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Barnstable County's 85,753 owner-occupied homes, 72.5% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 88.4% pay at least $2,000, and 2.1% pay under $800. Another 1.5% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Annual property tax paid by Barnstable County homeowners (Census ACS 2020-2024)
Annual bill	Homes	Share
Under $800	1,778	2.1%
$800 to $1,499	3,146	3.7%
$1,500 to $1,999	3,834	4.5%
$2,000 to $2,999	13,593	15.9%
$3,000 or more	62,150	72.5%
No property tax paid	1,252	1.5%

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $4,114 and owners without one pay $4,408. That is within 10% either way, so in Barnstable County paying off the house does not go with a noticeably different bill. Census table B25103.

How does the Barnstable County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $4,239 is about 3.9% of the median income of Barnstable County homeowner households, $108,830 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 81.1% of Barnstable County's occupied homes are lived in by their owners; renters pay property tax too, just folded into rent.

Have property taxes gone up in Barnstable County?

Yes. The median bill went from $3,254 in 2015-2019 to $4,239 in 2020-2024, a 30.3% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 59.8%, from $393,500 to $629,000. Bills rose more slowly than values, which is what assessment caps and falling millage rates do: the county is taxing a smaller share of each home's worth.

Two Census ACS 5-year periods with no survey years in common, in each period's own dollars. A change counts only if it exceeds the combined 90% margin of error.

Property tax in counties next to Barnstable County

Barnstable County borders 3 counties.

Barnstable County and its neighbors, highest effective rate first (Census ACS 2020-2024)
County	Effective rate	Median bill	Median home value
Plymouth County, MA	1.17%	$6,502	$556,000
Bristol County, MA	1.07%	$4,807	$451,200
Barnstable County, MA (this county)	0.67%	$4,239	$629,000
Dukes County, MA	0.5%	$5,828	$1,165,800

How is a home assessed in Barnstable County?

Massachusetts assesses homes at 100% of market value in every county, Barnstable County included. How Massachusetts assesses and reappraises homes.

Is there a homestead exemption in Barnstable County?

Not statewide. A Massachusetts community may adopt a residential exemption of up to 35% of the average residential assessed value on a principal residence; the homestead declaration protects equity from creditors and is not a tax break. That is the Massachusetts rule, and it applies in Barnstable County. Massachusetts's exemptions and relief programs in full.

Barnstable County does not add relief programs of its own beyond the Massachusetts ones (checked September 23, 2026).

How to appeal your Barnstable County property assessment

In Barnstable County you appeal to the Your town's board of assessors (an application for abatement); then the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board. The deadline: File a written abatement application with your town's assessors by the date the first installment of the actual (not preliminary) tax bill is due without interest: February 1 in a town that bills quarterly and November 1 in a town that bills twice a year, or later if that bill was mailed late. The assessors have three months to act; if they do not, the application is treated as denied. You can then appeal to the Appellate Tax Board within three months of the assessors' decision or the deemed denial. If your tax for the year is more than $5,000, keep paying every installment on time, because the tax cannot be reduced on appeal if interest was charged on any part of it. How to file. Checked September 23, 2026 against the official appeal rules.

How Massachusetts's appeal process works, including the next level if the first one turns you down.

Massachusetts rules from primary state sources, reviewed September 7, 2026; sources on the Massachusetts page.

Work out your own numbers

Sources

Median real estate taxes paid and median home value for Barnstable County, Massachusetts: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2020-2024), tables B25103, B25077, B25102, B25119 and B25003; the five-year comparison uses the 2015-2019 estimates. Neighboring counties: Census county adjacency file.