Falmouth's first real estate tax installment for fiscal year 2027 is due today, Thursday, November 5, 2026. For a buyer comparing towns, the annual tax line on a Falmouth listing usually reads as a settled cost of ownership. It isn't settled. The bill comes from a townwide valuation last reset in 2022. Falmouth's assessing office now certifies that valuation at 86% of current market, and over the same four years the state's estimate of what the town is worth has climbed well past the local assessment roll.
So the number a buyer sees today rests on an older picture of the market. The Town has already started setting money aside to redraw that picture, and redrawing it changes each property's share of the bill.
What today's bill is built from
Every Falmouth real estate tax bill comes down to one multiplication: assessed value times the rate. The inputs for this fiscal year, as published by Cumberland County Regional Assessing, which handles assessing for Falmouth:
- Tax rate: $14.66 per $1,000 of assessed value
- Assessment date: April 1, 2026
- Commitment date: August 27, 2026
- Certified ratio: 86%
- Last revaluation: 2022
- Abatement application deadline: March 1, 2027
The Town's own assessor's online database gives the same figures and puts the ratio this way: "Our ratio is 86% of current market."
Not every Town page agrees. The tax collection FAQ on falmouthme.org gives the same $14.66 rate but says assessments are at "100% of market value." Both the assessing office and the assessor's database say 86%. Those are the offices that actually set values, and their figure matches the state data below.
Two sets of books on the same town
Each year Maine Revenue Services publishes a state valuation for every municipality, an estimate of total taxable value that is separate from the town's own assessment roll. In Falmouth, the two have been moving at very different speeds.
| Year | Falmouth tax rate per $1,000 | Local certified ratio | Local municipal valuation | State valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $11.92 | 100% | $4.10 billion | $3.07 billion |
| 2023 | $12.64 | 100% | $4.14 billion | $3.44 billion |
| 2024 | $13.38 | 100% | $4.19 billion | $4.03 billion |
| 2025 | $4.47 billion | |||
| 2026 | $14.66 | 86% | $5.03 billion |
The local figures for 2022 through 2024 come from the state's Municipal Valuation Return statistical summaries, which also list Falmouth's tax rate and certified ratio for each commitment year. The state valuations come from the Maine Revenue Services historic state valuation table, which lists Falmouth at $5,033,100,000 for 2026. The state has not yet released a 2025 statistical summary, so the blank cells are unpublished figures. Don't fill them in by drawing a straight line between the years on either side.
The pattern is still plain. In 2022, the year of the revaluation, Falmouth's freshly reset local roll was about a billion dollars above the state's estimate, which suggests the state figure runs behind current sales. By 2024 the gap had shrunk to about $160 million. The 2025 and 2026 state figures then passed the last published local roll by a wide margin. Meanwhile the local valuation barely moved, and the rate rose every year it was reported.
What 86 percent does to a listing sheet
A certified ratio of 86% means the assessor's values sit, on average, at 86% of what the market would pay. Two practical results follow for someone reading a Falmouth listing.
First, the assessed value on a property card is not a price. A home assessed at $1,000,000 carries a bill of $14,660 a year at the current rate. Because the town as a whole is assessed at 86% of market, that assessment corresponds, on average, to a home worth around $1.16 million.
Second, the rate means less than it seems. On a market-value basis, $14.66 per $1,000 of assessed value works out to about $12.61 per $1,000 of market value across the town. A buyer comparing Falmouth's rate with a town assessed closer to 100% is comparing rates on different bases.
"On average" is doing a lot of work in both of those points. The 86% ratio describes the town as a whole. Since 2022, some properties have gained more value than the townwide average and some have gained less, and the current roll doesn't capture those differences. A house whose value has outrun the town since 2022 is, for now, taxed on a figure further behind its market price than its neighbors' are.
The revaluation the Town is already saving for
The Town has said in its own budget documents that a reset is coming. Falmouth's FY2026 operating accounts overview notes that the Town temporarily stopped certain special-revenue transfers "to accrue funds for the next property assessment revaluation." It does not give a target year.
A revaluation does not set how much tax the town collects. The town and school budgets do that. A revaluation decides how that total is split. Each property is reset to current market value, the rate is recalculated against the larger total valuation, and the rate per $1,000 normally falls. Properties that gained more than the town average since 2022 then carry a bigger share than they do today, and properties that gained less carry a smaller one. For a buyer, the current bill shows the split as of 2022, with rate increases layered on top.
The total being split is also growing. The Town's FY2027 budget proposal estimated that the municipal portion of the rate alone would rise from $2.90 to $3.06, an increase of 5.52%. The pressures it listed include a $450,000 loss in excise tax revenue, declining federal grants, personnel and health insurance costs, vehicle maintenance, and expiring TIFs. It also proposed a $323,000 increase in capital improvement funding, estimated to add $0.07 to the municipal rate, as part of a series of CIP increases the Town began two years ago to fund borrowing for urgently needed repairs and renovations to the Public Works and Fire Department buildings, with further increases planned for FY2028. TIF funds are offsetting more than $1 million a year in eligible public safety costs over the next few fiscal years, and the same document warns that expiring TIFs limit how much is available later. On the school side, the FY2027 school budget proposal showed a $3,240,024 increase in spending, driven mainly by wages, contracts and health insurance.
State law sets the limits on how far assessments can drift. 36 M.R.S. §327 sets a 70% minimum assessment ratio and says a municipality should not be assessed above 110% of just value. If a municipality fails the minimum assessing standards, §328 lets the state require corrective practices. Under §329, the municipality can either work with the state on those steps or appeal to the State Board of Property Tax Review. At 86%, Falmouth is well within the statutory range. The timing of its next revaluation is up to the Town, which is funding it but hasn't scheduled it.
The calendar a Falmouth buyer steps into
A purchase this fall or winter falls between dates that each affect the bill:
- November 5, 2026. The first FY2027 real estate installment is due. Late payments accrue 7.0% interest.
- December 1, 2026. Personal property taxes, which cover business equipment and machinery, are due.
- March 1, 2027. This is the deadline for abatement applications on FY2027 assessments.
- April 1, 2027. This is the next assessment date and the homestead exemption application deadline. It is also when Maine's restructured homestead exemption is scheduled to take effect.
- May 6, 2027. The second FY2027 installment is due.
The homestead change matters for anyone planning to make Falmouth a primary residence. Under current rules, as described on the County's exemption page, the Homestead Exemption removes up to $25,000 of value for a Maine resident who has owned a homestead in Maine for at least 12 months. That amount is adjusted by the town's certified ratio, which in Falmouth means 86%. Part M of the state's 2026–27 supplemental budget text combines the homestead, veterans' and blind exemptions into one tiered homestead exemption for tax years beginning April 1, 2027. It keeps a base of up to $25,000 and the 12-month ownership requirement, and it adds veteran tiers from $5,000 to $50,000 and up to $5,000 for blind residents. In an April 14, 2026 notice, the County said it will update its guidance and forms once Maine Revenue Services releases them, so treat the details as provisional until then.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how any rate, exemption, deadline or closing adjustment applies to your property with your attorney or tax advisor.
For a Falmouth purchase, the tax line deserves the same scrutiny as the inspection report: what the property is assessed at, how far that figure trails what you are paying, and what a future revaluation could mean for it. If you would like to go through those questions for a particular home, Elise Kiely can do that in a private consultation.
