GREENFIELD — As the city heads toward setting its tax rate for fiscal year 2026, Chief Assessor Christina Summers informed city councilors last week that Greenfield has seen an estimated $8.3 million in new growth this year.
The added new growth, or newly taxable property, is comparable to that which was added last year and consists of roughly $4.6 million in personal property growth, $35,000 in commercial property growth and $3.7 million in residential growth, Summers explained.
“Our assessment values are tied to the market value and the market value has gone up about 1.2%, according to the data that we have,” she said during last week’s City Council meeting. “We’ve had a lot of people that are renovating their houses. We’ve had some new builds and all that kind of stuff. We also have some new personal property accounts.”
The state Department of Revenue requires that each property be inspected every 10 years. Summers said that assessors always request an interior tour of homes in an effort to more accurately assess their values. However, should a property owner decline assessors interior access, they must use exterior images and property records to assess a building’s value.
The city, earlier in November, issued an advisory to residents that inspectors from the Assessor’s Office will be visiting properties to collect data for property tax assessments. Two individuals will be performing inspections on behalf of the city: Alexander Sendzik, a contractor working for the city who will be driving a dark blue 2025 Toyota RAV4 and who carries a letter from the Assessor’s Office explaining his employment; and Evan Gregg, a newly hired city employee who will be wearing a city identification badge and who will be driving a city vehicle with an Assessor’s Office logo on it.
If residents are not at home at the time of the inspector’s visit, inspectors will leave a card with information about how to schedule an interior inspection. Any questions can be directed to the Assessor’s Office at 413-772-1509.
At-Large Councilor Michael Terounzo asked Summers if she could intentionally assess properties that decline the assessors interior entry at higher values with the hope that their owners will decide to allow assessors access to rectify the high assessment.
Summers said assessors try to fairly and accurately assess all properties. She explained that while assessments become more challenging when residents refuse access, she can pursue alternative methods to determine a home’s value.
“If I have evidence from other sources that the home has been remodeled, then I’m going to put the home into the condition that reflects that evidence,” she said. “We’ve had instances where [values] have been too high and we had to put them back down in their proper place.”
Precinct 3 City Councilor Michael Mastrototaro asked Summers why commercial property values are typically much lower per square foot than residential properties, to which she responded that property values are ultimately determined by how much buyers are willing to pay for real estate.
Summers added that there are flaws in the methods used by the city to assess commercial properties, which she hopes to remedy in the future.
“It’s actually all about the buyer. … We know that there’s a lot of buyers for that single-family home, but there may not be very many buyers who want to buy a commercial building and try to find leases, try to find clients, try to find a way to make that business profitable,” Summers said. “I would like to pull apart our entire model and focus on commercial properties. There are a lot of things that are not being valued in the correct way; our model is assessing them on a price-per-square-foot basis and it should be on a price-per-unit basis.”