Malden City Council approves new property tax rate for 2025

Local single-family homeowners can expect to pay about $273 more on property tax bills in 2025; owner-occupied homeowner discount of 30% retained

By Steve Freker

  Malden will remain one of just 17 communities out of over 350 statewide that lessen the load on the property tax bill for those who live in the homes they own, but everyone can expect to pay more just the same.

The Malden City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday night unanimously agreed to set the 2025 property tax factor for both residential and commercial properties, accepting the recommendation included in a detailed presentation by Nate Cramer, Chairperson of the Malden Board of Assessors. The Councillors voted to continue offering a 30% discount for owner-occupied property tax bills. For an average Malden single-family residential property taxpayer, this will mean about a $2,800 savings.

The Council also voted to adopt a property tax rate of $11.33 per $1,000 of assessed value for Residential Property and $17.54 per $1,000 of assessed value for Commercial Property. The new rates are less than last year’s 2024 rate of $11.70 Residential and $18.20 Commercial, but they will not reflect a drop in taxes since the property value assessments continue to soar in Malden.

Specifically, last year’s 2024 average residential property was assessed at $743,873. This year’s average residential property assessed value is $792,121, an increase of nearly $50,000 per property, or, 6.71% higher. Commercial properties’ assessed value will be less on paper, but the assessed average value of commercial property was $1,287,943 in 2024, but is up 10.6% in average assessed value in just a year, to $1,424,960 in 2025.

The average residential property owner in Malden who owns a single-family home can expect to see an increase of between $250-$273 in 2024. Commercial property owners will see a property tax increase of approximately $1,550 in 2025. For example, the average tax bill for residential owners with the exemption will be $6,063, without the exemption, $8,973.

Cramer reported that in Malden just under 8,000 (7,998) residential properties will be eligible for the owner-occupied 30% discount in 2025, down from an average of 8,500 in past years. “We are seeing less and less owner-occupied residences in Malden,” Cramer said, describing what is becoming a trend.

Another trend, one that has become closely watched by the City Council in recent years, is the rise in percentage real estate growth in Malden; as residential stock increased 6% in the past year commercial real estate increased only 3% in the past year.

Ward 4 Councillor Ryan O’Malley asked Cramer for some specifics on how to apply for the 30% owner-occupied exemption, or rebate. Malden’s Chief Assessor said the deadline for applying for the next bill is April 1, 2025. Despite the fact that initial property tax bills are issued in January, residential taxpayers have until April 1 to apply for the exemption. On another O’Malley question, Cramer confirmed the owner-occupied exemption would carry over from one year to the next with no new application necessary unless the property’s deed changed.

Cramer also noted there were about 50 property tax abatement requests last year, most of them by property taxpayers challenging the property’s valuation. He said that’s a realistic number, in that if it dropped to lows of the teens, for example, it would be an indication that the assessments were too low as to real valuation.

Some other statistics shared included the average valuations in surrounding communities with the 30% residential exemptions, average tax bills and rates. Malden has an average valuation of $740,867 with a rate of $11.33 per $1,000 of valuation and bill of $6,063 with the exemption. Only Chelsea and Everett are lower in nearby communities, Chelsea with an average bill of $5,603 with the residential exemption with assessed residential value $724,617 and a rate of $11.90 per $1,000. Everett is $5,893, $685,652, $11.46.

—Boston is $6,703, $946,404, $10.90

—Cambridge is $6,810, $1,643,373, $10.46

—Somerville is $7,549, $1,100,993, $10.52