SOUTHWICK — With the total value of the town’s commercial and residential properties increasing to a whopping $171,251 from fiscal year 2025 and the tax rate dropping from $15.57 to $14.42 per $1,000 of a property’s value, the average homeowner will see an increase in their tax by about $102 annually or $8.51 each month.

“I’m estimating the tax rate at $14.50 for fiscal 2026,” said Town Assessor Randy Austin during the annual tax classification hearing for the Select Board, adding Tuesday that he expects the Department of Revenue to approve the rate at .8 cents lower than what he announced at the Select Board’s annual tax classification hearing Monday night.

“We added a lot of value to the average single-family. And we had our project that we had to do that resulted in additional value c

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