Since the 2025 revaluation, two similar Fairfield homes on the same street can carry different property tax bills because one owner filed an appeal and the other did not. Last spring, hundreds of Fairfield owners took their new assessments to the Board of Assessment Appeals, and most of them came out with lower numbers. Whoever buys one of those homes takes on the lower assessment. Whoever buys the house next door, where the owner didn't file, takes on the original one.
That makes the annual tax line on a Fairfield listing in late 2026 hard to compare across houses. Part of it reflects the house. Part of it reflects what a seller decided to do in February. The town's own rules keep that difference in place for years.
The spring that set this year's tax lines
Fairfield revalued every property for the October 1, 2025 Grand List, and the town finalized that list on January 30, 2026. On the town's revaluation page, residential values rose by about 63.88% and commercial values by about 16.61%. The town labels both figures as estimates. Because homes gained value faster than commercial property, the town projected that residential property's share of the Grand List would grow from 78% to 84%. That shifts more of the total tax onto homeowners.
The Board of Finance set the FY2026-27 mill rate at 19.19, down from 28.39. Patch reported that many homeowners would still see higher bills because values rose so much.
The appeals came next. Assessor Ross Murray told the board that the Board of Assessment Appeals heard and decided 876 appeals in this cycle, up from 619 after the 2020 revaluation. About 78% ended in reductions. The average cut was roughly 17%, compared with about 3% in 2020. Murray said the success rate itself was in line with recent years. "What makes the number large is the sheer number of appeals," he said, as quoted by Patch.
So the share of appeals that succeeded was ordinary. What stood out was that more owners filed, and those who won got much bigger reductions. Several hundred Fairfield homes now carry assessments well below where the revaluation first set them.
What a 17% cut looks like on a real bill
The town's formula is straightforward. An assessment is 70% of fair market value, and the tax is the assessment divided by 1,000, multiplied by the mill rate. Here is the arithmetic for two homes each valued at $1,000,000 as of October 1, 2025, at the FY2026-27 rate of 19.19:
- House A, no appeal: $1,000,000 × 70% = $700,000 assessed. $700,000 ÷ 1,000 × 19.19 = $13,433 a year.
- House B, appealed and received the cycle's average reduction of about 17%: $700,000 × 0.83 = $581,000 assessed. $581,000 ÷ 1,000 × 19.19 = about $11,149 a year.
- The gap: about $2,284 a year between two houses the revaluation originally valued the same.
House B's owner may have had good reasons to file. The board reviews evidence, and a reduction usually means the original figure was too high. For a buyer comparing listings, though, the two tax lines describe two equal houses differently, and nothing in a typical listing explains why.
The assessment stays with the house, not the owner
The gap lasts because of a rule on the Fairfield assessor's real estate page: values set during a revaluation "remain the same until the next revaluation unless changes are made to your property." A sale is not one of those changes. The town says revaluations happen every five years, which puts the next town-wide reset around 2030 if that schedule holds.
At closing, the current year's bill is split. According to the Fairfield Tax Collector's FAQ, the settlement attorney usually prorates it by the sale date, so the seller pays for the part of the year they owned the home and the buyer pays for the rest. Fairfield bills real estate tax quarterly, due July 1, October 1, January 1 and April 1. The town mailed the 2025 Grand List bills on June 25, 2026. For anyone closing this winter, the next installment is due January 1. Late payments accrue interest at 1.5% a month from the original due date.
Tax Collector David Kluczwski told the Board of Finance in June that some owners might put off paying larger bills. For a buyer, that makes the proration statement a document to read line by line.
Reading a Fairfield listing from the assessment back
Because every assessment comes from the same 70% ratio and the same October 1, 2025 valuation date, any assessment can be converted back into the value the town assigned. Divide the assessment by 0.7. A $581,000 assessment means the town now values the home at about $830,000 as of October 2025. A $700,000 assessment means $1,000,000.
The inputs are public. The town posts property record cards and final post-revaluation values on its Vision Government Solutions site. The assessor also points to Vision for recent property transfers by street address. Comparing a home's implied October 2025 value with its asking price, and with the implied values of similar homes nearby, shows whether a low tax line comes from a modest valuation or from an appeal.
For a buyer, the questions are:
- Assessment ÷ 0.7: the value the town placed on the home as of October 1, 2025.
- Neighbors' implied values: whether similar homes nearby were valued much higher.
- Sale price vs. implied value: a large gap suggests the assessment was lowered on appeal.
Together they show how a home's current tax line was set and what it is likely to stay at until the next revaluation.
Next door in Westport, the same revaluation sorted differently
Westport revalued on the same October 1, 2025 date, so buyers comparing the two towns are looking at assessments from the same point in the market. The appeals turned out differently.
| Fairfield | Westport | |
|---|---|---|
| Average residential value change | about 63.88%, town estimate | 59.55% |
| Mill rate, FY2025-26 to FY2026-27 | 28.39 to 19.19 | 18.86 to 13.2 |
| Appeals decided | 876 | about 370, of which 305 residential |
| Appeals with reductions | about 78% | about 136 of 305 residential |
| Average or total reduction | about 17% average | $16,483,057 total, all appeals |
According to CT Insider, Westport Assessor Paul Friia said the board lowered about 136 of the 305 residential appeals, a little under half. Only two properties saw their assessments go up. The change also varied within Westport. The Westport Journal reported average increases of about 66% north of I-95 and 57% south of it.
For someone deciding between the towns, this matters. In Fairfield, a larger share of homes went through a successful appeal, so tax lines on similar houses are more likely to differ. In Westport, more homes kept their original revaluation figure. Weston is on its own schedule. Its last revaluation was October 1, 2023, and the next is set for 2028, so Weston assessments come from a different market date than either coastal town's.
The next filing window opens in February
The rules on the Fairfield assessment appeals page are specific. For the 2026 Grand List, the real estate appeal deadline is Friday, February 19, 2027, at 4:30 p.m. Petitions must be completed, signed and received in the Assessor's Office by then, and postmarks are not accepted. Hearings take place in March and last 15 minutes each. The page also states that the board "has the authority to increase an assessment as well as decrease it."
That timing affects both sides of a sale. A seller who didn't appeal last spring is listing with the original assessment. A buyer who closes this winter owns the home on whatever assessment it carries now, and the February window belongs to whoever owns the property when the deadline arrives.
A few direct questions
Does buying a Fairfield home reset its assessment? No. Under the assessor's rule, values set during a revaluation stay in place until the next one unless the property itself changes.
Why did Fairfield's mill rate fall while many bills went up? The rate dropped from 28.39 to 19.19, but residential values rose faster than commercial values. That moved more of the town's total tax onto homes.
Which Grand List are this winter's bills based on? The 2025 Grand List, with an assessment date of October 1, 2025.
Has Fairfield published a final post-appeal residential percentage? The town's revaluation page still lists about 63.88% and labels it an estimate.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own property, confirm the details with the Fairfield Assessor, a real estate attorney or a tax professional.
When we price a Fairfield listing or prepare an offer, we look at the assessment and how it got there, along with the asking price. If you want to know what your home's assessment says about its value and how a buyer will read it, M & D Properties can walk you through it. Request a Home Valuation to get started.