You can use property revaluation to assess your local government's grasp of property tax policy. Specifically, how well are assessed values being maintained, such that they are in synch with market values?
Property revaluation is at the heart of tax fairness in NJ, but it can be confusing due to a confluence of factors, including confusion about the tax math. Demystifying that math is not only possible, it's obtainable from your home, with some civic elbow grease and some back of the envelope math.
Revaluation drives the "assessed value" on your tax bill
There are three key things to note about property revaluation as it relates to your property tax bill:
- Your tax bill uses "assessed value" as the basis for your property tax expense.
- Assessed value is supposed to be in synch with market value
- Your assessed value is typically determined through a citywide revaluation, and so "assessed = market" is typically a frozen-in-time analysis conducted in the last revaluation. Thus, if it's been a long time since your municipality's last revaluation, then that analysis of "assessed = market" may be very outdated. That "stale" paradigm is what can lead to systemic overtaxation
A property revaluation is a way to make "assessed = market" on a systemic-wide basis
A property revaluation is when the municipal government decides to get everyone's assessed values updated so that "assessed = market" on a systemic basis. We can think of property revaluation as akin to a "reset" on assessed values.
And...important to note: a property tax appeal is a way to make "assessed = market" on an individualized basis
A property tax appeal is when an individual homeowner aims to lower their local assessed value because the assessed value is higher than it should be, given this premise that "assessed should equal market." There is some wonk tax math you have to understand to walk through this appeals process and I cover that on my Tax Appeals page.
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