Real Cost of Living in Cohasset, MA: Taxes and Prices

How Massachusetts Property Tax Actually Works: Proposition 2½

Massachusetts towns do not simply pick a tax rate each year. Under Proposition 2½, a 1980 ballot law, the total property-tax revenue a town may collect — its levy — is capped, and that levy can grow year over year by only 2.5% plus whatever new revenue comes from newly built or improved property (new growth), unless voters approve an override at town meeting or the ballot.

Only after that levy ceiling is set does a town divide it by its total assessed value to produce a rate expressed per $1,000 of assessed value. The resulting number is the output of a statutory revenue cap working backward through the town's rising assessed values, not a figure the Select Board sets directly the way it might set a budget line. This mechanism applies identically across every South Shore town in this cluster — only the resulting rate differs, and Cohasset's own resulting rate is the highest of the five.

Cohasset's Tax Rate: the Highest in the Cluster, With a Real Verification Gap

For FY2025, Cohasset's property tax rate was $11.58 per $1,000 of assessed value — the highest of any town in this South Shore cluster confirmed so far. For comparison, the same source lists Duxbury at 10.14, Scituate at 9.99, and Marshfield at 9.90. Cohasset's rate sits meaningfully above all three of its immediate neighbors.

That $11.58 figure comes from massachusettsalmanac.com's own Massachusetts Communities Tax Rate Fiscal Year 2025 comparison table, and it deserves a specific, honest caveat: this figure was carried forward from that same source as already cited and cross-confirmed in this cluster's own prior research on Marshfield and Scituate, rather than freshly re-verified against a detailed rate table in this pass. A direct attempt to re-fetch massachusettsalmanac.com's underlying table did not return the detailed rate content itself, only summary page text. Treat $11.58 as a carried-forward, twice-cross-cited figure rather than a number independently re-checked line by line this time around.

FY2023, FY2024, and FY2026 Cohasset-specific rates could not be confirmed and should not be assumed or interpolated. If you need those specific years, go directly to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's Division of Local Services Tax Rates by Class database, or contact the Town of Cohasset Assessors' Office directly, rather than relying on a guess.

What Cohasset Homes Actually Cost: Three Numbers, Three Sources, No Blending

Ask what a home is worth in Cohasset and the honest answer is that it depends which source you ask, and each one is measuring something a little different. Zillow's own home-values page, reflecting May 2026 data, shows an average home value (ZHVI) of $1,474,056, up 5.2% year over year — by a wide margin the highest average home value confirmed for any town in this cluster's research so far.

Census QuickFacts, using 2020-2024 American Community Survey data for owner-occupied units, gives a median home value of $1,318,900 — high, but meaningfully below Zillow's live index figure. Ownwell's own trends page, last updated April 13, 2026, gives a lower still median home value of $1,098,300, alongside a median annual tax bill of $12,718 — by far the highest median annual tax bill of any town in this cluster's own research (compare Scituate's $8,417 and Marshfield's $6,676). Ownwell also puts Cohasset's median effective property-tax rate at 1.16%, above both the Massachusetts state median of 1.15% and the U.S. median of 1.02%.

These three figures — $1,474,056 (Zillow ZHVI), $1,318,900 (Census ACS), and $1,098,300 (Ownwell) — reflect three different methodologies and vintages, not a single number with rounding noise. Cite whichever one matches what you actually need (a live market-value estimate, an ACS survey median, or an assessment-based median), and specify the source when you do. A separate, real-estate-marketing source describes a premium waterfront micro-neighborhood sometimes called the Gold Coast, along Jerusalem Road, Atlantic Avenue, and Nichols Road, with recent listings priced from roughly $1.9 million to $5.3 million — treat that figure as a marketing-vintage snapshot of the town's highest-end pocket, not a town-wide statistic.

Household Income: the Highest in the Cluster, Confirmed by Two Sources

Census QuickFacts, drawing on 2020-2024 American Community Survey data, puts Cohasset's median household income at $199,306 — by a wide margin the highest of any town in this South Shore cluster's own research (compare Scituate's $136,732 and Marshfield's $125,986). Per capita income is $113,599, and the homeownership rate is 83.0%, consistent with an affluent, low-turnover, family-oriented town. Median gross rent is $2,755.

Unusually for this cluster, a second independent source agrees with the Census figure exactly: massachusetts-demographics.com separately reports $199,306 for 2024 — the identical number. That kind of exact cross-source agreement has been rare elsewhere in this cluster's research, which makes this one of the more solidly confirmed figures on this page.

Poverty figures need a specific comparability caveat: Census QuickFacts gives 3.0% of persons in poverty, while massachusetts-demographics.com separately gives 1.7% of families in poverty. These are not directly conflicting numbers — they measure different populations (persons versus families) and possibly different vintages — so do not present one as contradicting the other.

One notable gap: this research could not confirm that a Massachusetts-specific DataUSA.io profile for Cohasset exists at all. Searches turned up only Cohasset, Minnesota and Cohasset, California profiles, not a Massachusetts one. That is arguably a more significant reliability gap than the wrong-population problem found in this cluster's other towns' DataUSA profiles — there, at least a profile existed to be checked against Census figures and flagged as unreliable. If you do find a Cohasset, MA DataUSA page, verify every figure on it against Census QuickFacts before relying on it.

The Greenbush Line: Cohasset Has Its Own Stop Too

Cohasset has its own MBTA Commuter Rail stop, Cohasset station, on the same Greenbush Line that also serves neighboring Scituate. Like Scituate, and unlike Duxbury and Marshfield, that gives Cohasset residents direct in-town rail access into Boston without first driving to another town — a genuine, structural commuting advantage over two of its South Shore neighbors.

The line's own history and its catch are already documented in this cluster's Scituate research: modern service was restored on October 31, 2007 after a 48-year gap, at a restoration cost of roughly $534 million, and by 2024 it recorded the lowest average daily ridership of any line in the entire MBTA commuter rail system. Cohasset shares that same trade-off — real rail access, on the system's least-used line.

A Practical Checklist Before You Rely on Any Number Here

First, treat $11.58 per $1,000 as Cohasset's FY2025 tax rate, the highest in this South Shore cluster, but remember it was carried forward from prior cluster research rather than freshly re-verified against a detailed rate table in this specific pass. FY2023, FY2024, and FY2026 rates were not confirmed, and guessing at them would be worse than leaving the gap open.

Second, do not anchor to a single home-value number. Zillow's live ZHVI ($1,474,056), Census QuickFacts' ACS median ($1,318,900), and Ownwell's assessment-based median ($1,098,300) are three different, non-interchangeable figures — cite the one that matches your purpose, and say which one you are using.

Third, the $199,306 median household income figure is unusually well-confirmed, agreeing exactly across Census QuickFacts and a second independent source — but no confirmed Cohasset, MA DataUSA.io profile could be found at all in this research, so do not cite one without checking it against Census figures first.

Finally, this page does not attempt to estimate Cohasset-specific grocery, utility, or homeowners-insurance costs, and it does not state a flood-insurance Community Rating System class or FEMA flood-zone designation for the town — none of those figures were part of the confirmed research behind this page, and inventing them would be worse than leaving them out. Confirm every number here, and get current estimates for anything not covered on this page, directly with the Town of Cohasset Assessors' Office, the U.S. Census Bureau, and a Massachusetts-licensed real estate agent or tax professional before relying on any of it financially. Nothing here is tax, legal, or financial advice.