This seems like a good time to talk about tax deferrals for Seniors.
The Town of Lexington offers Lexington seniors the opportunity to use the equity in their homes to pay all or part of their property tax and water and sewer bill.
Unlike Reverse Mortgages, the terms of Lexington’s Property Tax Deferral Program include very low interest rates and protect the Senior’s right to stay in their home.
Here are some details for FY2026 property tax deferrals:
- The property must be the primary residence of one of the homeowners aged 65 or over. Their household’s gross income may be as high as $109,000. There is no asset or house value limitation.
- 2026 income limits are based on 2024 incomes. Qualifying incomes increase each year by a cost of living adjustment.
- The interest rate for amounts deferred in 2026 is a low 4.19% simple interest. Each year’s deferral is an individual loan whose interest rate will never increase until the that year’s loan becomes due.
- Homes held in trust do qualify for deferrals if the applicant is a trustee and a named beneficiary. The Assessor’s office will advise you on this and other details of the program.
- Applications are due by April 1, 2026.
Read about all of Lexington’s property tax programs at https://www.lexingtonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4711/FY2026-Property-Tax-Relief-Brochure. You may pick up a copy of this brochure at the Senior Center or at the Town Office Building. The Assessor’s office, at 781-698-4578, is happy to answer any questions.
Vicki Blier
Town Meeting Member, Pct. 9
Former co-chair with Pat Costello of the Select Board’s Tax Deferral and Exemption Study Committee.
Vicki:
Do you — and more importantly do our Town leaders — understand why only 50 or so seniors out of many thousand in Lexington, take advantage of these programs?
I ask because I don’t understand why so few enroll, and I think this problem should be understood, so perhaps I missed the explanation of why 50 only. Thanks!
Mr. Mehr- As I’ve explained to you before, Lexington’s deferral program has among the highest participation numbers if not *the* highest participation rate in the entire state.
The program is well publicized including by an annual insert in the tax bill sent to every Lexington property owner and by personal advice from the Town’s social workers, the Assessor’s office and the AARP tax preparers at the Senior Center among others.
This program offers an uncommonly low simple interest rate and a reasonably high income limit that increases every year. There’s no asset limit nor cap on house value for participation in the program. It compares very favorably to Reverse Mortgages. Participants in the program can never be forced to leave their home due to taxes deferred. Homeowners can even use any other Lexington tax exemption that they qualify for and then defer any or all of the rest.
So the best answer could be that most of Lexington’s seniors do not feel pinched enough to utilize this program.
I invite you to apply your efforts to publicizing the clear benefits of this program and encouraging people to utilize it.
Vicki:
I am no expert on the details of how senior programs work — perhaps because I am too wealthy to qualify for any, so I work hard to get our Town leaders to not waste taxpayers’ money, a far more effective way to help the finances of our seniors in need, e.g. don’t build Bloom which is so massively too expensive.
I only look at the bottom line. The Census says (https://censusreporter.org/profiles/06000US2501735215-lexington-town-middlesex-county-ma/) that of Lexington’s 34,085 residents, 21% are 65 years old and older, or about 7,158 seniors.
50 seniors take these programs, or 0.7% of all our seniors. I wish, as you wrote, that “most [99.3%] of Lexington’s seniors do not feel pinched enough” was true, but I doubt it: let’s see if the Dec 8 debt exclusion gets anywhere close to 99.3% of YES votes.
And if 0.7% makes Lexington a leader in Massachusetts, wow, clearly these programs are a boondoggle with some not yet understood problems if their take rate is almost 0 statewide.
My point is that instead of your general words, Vicki, you should get our Town leaders — they tend to listen to you and to your friends more closely than they listen to me — to figure out why the 0.7% take rate is so ridiculously low.
Or, better yet, the LexObserver should do it as a public service.