NORTHAMPTON — It’s safe to say Ruth Griggs was a little unsettled when she looked at her latest property tax bill.

Griggs, who has lived in a condominium on Northampton’s South Street since 2011, said when she moved to the city her taxes were much lower than when she had lived in New York — and that her property tax bill went up 22% this year, translating to paying around $4,000 a year.

“For me personally, I can absorb that increase, but I’m lucky that I can,” Griggs said. “It would be staggering for someone on a fixed income.”

Griggs isn’t alone with her concerns. As home values continue to swell in Northampton at a rate higher than any surrounding community, homeowners are feeling a hit in terms of how much they have to pay each year in property taxes. Tack on higher water rates — which the city increased by more 200% in 2023 to make up for the planned closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant — and it’s easy to see why some homeowners might be feeling a little anxious.

Condominium owners like Griggs saw particularly higher valuations on their property for the current fiscal year. According to data from the assessor’s office obtained by the Gazette, the assessed total value of condominium properties in Northampton increased by 18%, about 6% higher than the increase on the average single-family home.

Judith Hennessy, who owns a condominium on Hatfield Street, said that for this fiscal year her yearly property taxes went up $300 — about the same amount as her entire quarterly tax bill when she bought the property in 1996. According to data from the assessor’s office, the assessed value of her condo increased by more than $75,000 from last year.

“It’s forcing so many people out … the prices are astronomical,” Hennessy said. “It’s ruining some of the businesses here.”

Though many residents have expressed frustration over their property tax bills, the property tax rate in the city has actually been decreasing from the past several fiscal years, including this year when it dropped from $15.19 to $13.93 per $1,000 of assessed property. But as property values continue to climb, Northampton residents still find themselves on average paying more this year, some more than others.

While many cities and towns across the state have seen a significant spike in property values over the last three fiscal years, the assessed value of the average single-family home in Northampton has increased by 52%, from $352,329 to $536,905, a higher percentage than anywhere else in Hampshire County and the third highest in western Massachusetts, only behind the small Berkshire county towns of New Ashford and Egremont, according to data from the state’s Division of Local Services.

Statewide, Northampton ranks within the top 20 municipalities in terms of average single-family home value increase during that three-year period, joining the likes of many affluent Boston suburbs and idyllic Cape Cod communities. Over the past 10 fiscal years, the average single-family home value in Northampton has risen by more than $235,000, or 78% overall, according to the state DLS data.

In terms of average tax rates themselves, Northampton’s increases have been a little more modest: The average single-family property tax bill increased 18% over the last three years, ranking the city 72nd overall across the state in that timeframe. Northampton’s FY 2025 budget includes $78.4 million revenue from real estate and personal property taxes, a $3.8 million increase from FY 2024 — a little less than 5%.

But city Assessor Marc Dautreuil acknowledged that this year brought a correction of condominium values in the city that had been previously underestimated, leading to some higher-than expected tax bills for their owners. Dautreuil, who has been the principal assessor for the city for four years, said a software error resulted in condominium assessments not being changed the last few years, something that was fixed this year and resulting in higher-than-usual assessments.

“There is a very large learning curve going from the deputy assessor to the principal assessor, and I was kind of thrown into this job,” Dautreuil said. “There was a couple of years where I didn’t notice that the values either weren’t going up at all or going up incredibly small amounts.”

Although Northampton’s assessed property values have been climbing higher than surrounding communities, demand for property in the city doesn’t seem to be higher than elsewhere in the county, according to Carolyn Abbe Smith, a co-owner of the Delap Real Estate group.

“There’s just not much on the market, it’s very little inventory, which has been a problem for the last couple of years,” she said. “When they do come on [the market], they go pretty quickly unless there’s something seriously wrong with the property.”

Data from the real estate information firm The Warren Group shows that the median sale price in Northampton actually declined in 2024 by $30,000 in 2024 from $490,000 to $460,000, though remained higher than the median sale price in Hampshire County as a whole. The number of property sales in the city has also been trending downward for the last four years, something reflected in the county as a whole.

“There’s a lot of demand, but there’s no inventory,” said Warren Group spokesperson Cassidy Norton. “People are reluctant to sell their houses and then buy into a more expensive market.”

Dautreuil said some exceptions are available for property tax payments based on age and income, as well as for injured veterans. Senior citizens can also earn partial exemptions by volunteering for city jobs, and tax deferral options also exist for seniors earning less than $72,000 a year.

“If you qualify for the tax deferral plan, there’s a good chance you’ll never have to pay your taxes again,” he said. “That way, the city cannot foreclose on your property.”

It’s also possible to file an application for abatement to try to get property taxes reduced, and if that fails, to file an appeal with the state’s Appellate Tax Board.

Helen Wise, who resides on Ridgewood Terrace and has lived in Northampton for more than 50 years, said that last year she faced an increase of $3,200 in taxes for her 1,300-square-foot property, though she managed to file a successful appeal to get it reduced.

“It’s absolutely appalling,” Wise said. “We’re being affected by the sale of comparable properties. There’s a lot of houses being renovated and selling for very high prices.”

Robin Glenn, who lives in Florence and has been a homeowner for 23 years, said her quarterly tax bill has gone up from $40 to $1,300 in that same time frame, said she understood there was only so much that the city could do to stave off increasing property values, but said the city needed to show more transparency about how resident’s tax dollars were being spent.

“I was in Denmark last summer where the taxes are a lot higher, but people never complain because they know what they’re getting for it,” Glenn said. “They [Northampton] can’t do anything to lower prices, but they could explain it better.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.