Board of Assessors:
Richard H. Letarte, Chairman-term expires 2024 rletarte@lunenburgma.gov
Christine Cosgrove Higdon, Member-term expires 2023 ccosgrove-higdon@lunenburgma.gov
Kevin J. Fish, Member-term expires 2025 kfish@lunenburgma.gov
Office Hours:
Monday, Wednesday - 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Tuesday, Thursday - 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Closed Friday
Office Staff:
CJ Carroll, Principal Assessor ccarroll@lunenburgma.gov
Sheila Craigen, Administrative Assessing Assistant scraigen@lunenburgma.gov
Fiscal Year 2023 tax rate is $14.62 per thousand.
Responsibilities of the Assessor's Office
In Massachusetts, Assessors are either appointed or elected to three-year terms. The Assessors' primary responsibility is to value all real estate and personal property subject to taxation. Assessed valuations are based on "full and fair cash value" as of the January 1st preceding each fiscal year. Ex. For Fiscal Year 2021 the assessment date is 1/1/2020, and market sales utilized for valuation purposes are from calendar year 2019.
In order to maintain assessments at or near market value, the Assessors regularly compare property valuations with the selling prices of properties that have sold. Assessment-to-sale ratio statistics are analyzed to determine the median assessment level, as well as, assessment uniformity. No valuation methodology can accurately predict what a property will sell for.