Dennis Property Tax: The FY2026 Rate and Why the Exemption Question Isn't Settled
Dennis enters FY2026 with one of the lowest property tax rates on Cape Cod, a number that ticked down rather than up from the year before. The rate is $4.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, and by the same compilation that tracks it, only Chatham's $3.67 sits lower anywhere in Barnstable County. What Dennis doesn't have, despite a Select Board presentation on the idea just last fall, is a residential exemption - the local-option program some Cape towns use to knock a slice of value off an owner-occupied home's tax bill. This guide walks through the current rate, the single-rate structure behind it, the unresolved exemption discussion, the Proposition 2½ framework every Massachusetts town operates under, and what a typical Dennis tax bill looks like against the state average.
The FY2026 Rate: $4.29 Per $1,000, Down From $4.33
Dennis's tax rate for FY2026 is $4.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, a slight decrease from FY2025's $4.33, per capecodbliss.com's compilation of Cape Cod rates. That places Dennis second-lowest among all fifteen Cape towns in that same roundup, trailing only Chatham's $3.67 - a genuinely low number in a county where several towns run into the $6, $7, even $10 range per $1,000.
Every source reviewed for this page lists a single figure for Dennis rather than a split residential-versus-commercial/industrial structure, consistent with the confirmed FY2023 uniform rate of $4.67 per $1,000. That's a reasonable, high-confidence read of where FY2026 stands too, though it's worth a small hedge: the town's own FY2026 classification-hearing document - the record that would formally confirm whether Dennis elected a split rate for this specific year - wasn't independently pulled for this page. Treat the single-rate structure as very likely correct based on years of consistent secondary-source reporting, not as a direct primary-source confirmation for FY2026 specifically.
No Residential Exemption - a September 2025 Proposal That Didn't Proceed
Dennis's own Property Tax Exemptions page lists exemption programs for seniors (65+ and 70+ thresholds), veterans, blind residents, and surviving spouses, plus a tax-deferral option - but nothing aimed broadly at owner-occupants the way a residential exemption is. In September 2025, town staff presented a "Residential Exemption Overview" to the Select Board, raising the possibility of adopting one. It doesn't appear to have gone further: no FY2026 tax-rate roundup for Dennis lists a residential exemption in effect, which is the clearest evidence that the September discussion didn't turn into an adopted policy for this fiscal year.
That's worth stating as "considered, not adopted" rather than as a closed question - the Select Board could pick the idea back up, and town meeting could act on it in a future year. It's also worth noting where Dennis now stands relative to towns that did adopt one: Barnstable, Mashpee, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet all currently offer a residential exemption, and Chatham is set to adopt its own starting FY2027. An owner-occupied home in Dennis gets no equivalent automatic reduction in assessed value under current policy, even though Dennis's base rate is already low enough that the practical gap may matter less here than in a higher-rate town.
What a Typical Bill Looks Like
Ownwell, a private property-tax-appeal service, lists Dennis's median assessed home value at roughly $876,600 with an effective tax rate around 0.43% - well under the Massachusetts state median of 1.15%. Since Ownwell is a business that solicits tax-appeal clients rather than a government or academic source, treat that figure as directional context rather than an authoritative benchmark, but it lines up with what the $4.29 rate alone would suggest: a home assessed near that median would owe somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,800 a year before any exemption or credit, a comparatively modest bill by Massachusetts standards even before accounting for Dennis's below-average rate.
Dennis's own market spans a wide range beneath that county-wide median figure, from Dennis Port's mid-$500,000s typical home values on the Nantucket Sound side to the high-$800,000s and beyond in Dennis village and South Dennis toward Cape Cod Bay - so an individual bill depends heavily on which side of town a property sits, not just the town-wide rate.
Proposition 2½: The Statewide Cap Behind Every Cape Town’s Rate
Like every Massachusetts municipality, Dennis's levy operates under Proposition 2½, the 1980 statewide law that limits how quickly a town's total property tax collections can grow. It works through two related caps: a levy ceiling that keeps the total levy at or under 2.5% of the town's total assessed value, and a levy limit that restricts year-over-year levy growth to 2.5% regardless of how much individual property values rise. New construction falls outside that annual growth cap, so newly built homes and commercial space add tax revenue without counting against the limit, and a town can only exceed its regular growth cap through a voter-approved override or a debt exclusion tied to a specific borrowing purpose.
The cap slows the pace of levy growth, it doesn't freeze it - reassessments still catch up to rising waterfront and near-coastal values over time, and Massachusetts property taxes have nearly doubled in real terms statewide since 1984 even with Proposition 2½ in place. It's a statewide mechanic rather than anything Dennis-specific, so it explains the gradual year-to-year drift in the rate rather than why this particular year landed at $4.29.
Confirming Current Figures Before You Rely on Them
Dennis's rate is set annually, and the residential-exemption question left open by the September 2025 Select Board presentation is a live policy discussion, not a settled outcome - both could look different by the time you're reading this. The $4.29 figure, the single-rate structure, and the absence of a residential exemption all reflect the most recent information found in the research behind this page.
Before relying on any number here for a purchase decision, a rental pro forma, or a household budget, confirm the current rate, your property's specific assessed value, and current exemption policy directly with the Dennis Assessor's office. This page reflects independent research, not tax or legal advice, and a licensed tax professional should be consulted for guidance specific to your situation.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Dennis's FY2026 property tax rate of $4.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, down from FY2025's $4.33 and the second-lowest rate in Barnstable County behind Chatham's $3.67, comes from capecodbliss.com's compilation of Cape Cod tax rates. The single, non-split rate structure is inferred with high confidence from consistent secondary-source reporting and the confirmed FY2023 uniform rate of $4.67 per $1,000, but was not independently verified against the town's own FY2026 classification-hearing document. The absence of a residential exemption for FY2026, despite a September 2025 "Residential Exemption Overview" presented to the Select Board, is drawn from the town's own Property Tax Exemptions page and the absence of any Dennis residential exemption in current FY2026 tax-rate roundups - contrasted with Barnstable, Mashpee, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet's current exemptions and Chatham's planned FY2027 adoption. The median assessed home value (~$876,600) and effective tax rate (~0.43%) come from Ownwell, a private tax-appeal-service site, and are presented as directional context rather than an authoritative source, alongside the Massachusetts state median effective rate of 1.15%. Massachusetts' Proposition 2½ mechanics (the levy ceiling and levy limit, the new-construction exclusion, override and debt-exclusion provisions, and the statewide near-doubling of real property tax levels since 1984 despite the cap) are drawn from this site's Cape Cod regional research. Tax rates and exemption policy change annually and are set independently by each town - confirm all current figures directly with the Dennis Assessor's office before making any purchase, rental, or financial decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.