Jersey City is undergoing a multi-month Revaluation process and appraisal firm ASI, Inc. is currently assessing all properties throughout the city. I wrote about the April 3rd Ward “A” revaluation presentation, hosted by ASI, Inc, and one promise from that meeting: that an interactive assessment map would be made available. Good news – that map is now available! The interactive nature of the new map allows you to search for your property (similar to Google maps) and then click on your property to view further details. The map’s information is limited, but still useful. If your property has a color-coded box on it, ...
I attended the Ward “A” revaluation meeting on April 3rd and had a chance to listen to a representative from Appraisal Systems, Inc., the third-party appraisal firm hired by Jersey City to conduct the revaluation. Mark Duda presented; he is an ASI executive and the designated ASI “project manager” for Jersey City’s revaluation. Mark Duda, ASI, Inc’s Vice President and Project Manager for Jersey City’s Revaluation ASI, Inc. is one of just a few firms in NJ that conducts mass re-appraisals. A listing of all the revaluations that ASI is conducting in NJ can be found here. Additionally, there is a Jersey City-specific ...
Steven Fulop’s press person, Jennifer Morrill, made an egregious error on the record this month when she characterized tax appeals as not being based on sales prices. Tax appeals are, in fact, based explicitly on recent comparable sales prices. Ms. Morrill’s statement was in response to a story about a local resident, April Kuzas, who recently filed a tax appeal to force Mayor Fulop’s property assessment value to be increased. Ms. Kuzas’ argument is based on a widely reported fact: Mayor Fulop is severely under-taxed. His under-taxation is due primarily to Jersey City’s severely outdated assessment values (the last citywide revaluation was 1988). In ...
This is a guest post from Jersey City resident and mortgage industry professional Susan Kulakowski. Susan reached out to me after reading my last post, “Property Revaluation 501: Mapping & Color Coding Jersey City Home Sales by Assessment-Sales Ratio.” She analyzed the map’s underlying data and provided a ward-specific lens into the upcoming property revaluation. She offered to share her analysis with CivicParent readers and I gladly accepted. Her analysis can aid taxpayers in understanding fundamental questions like: What’s the likelihood of my taxes going up or down, depending on which Ward I live in? Which ward will see the most tax increase? ...
This post is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. I partnered with CivicJC to create an interactive map to help residents visualize 2015 property sales in Jersey City and their corresponding taxes. Recent property sales are informing because they are used as a proxy for market value when establishing the city’s annual equalization ratio. Click here to enlarge the map in a new browser window. How it works Pin drops are color coded: Green = under assessed (ratio below 23.49) Red = Over assessed (ratio over 31.77) Black = Fairly assessed (ratio between 23.49-31.77) Ratio ranges and qualification of “under”, “over”, or “fairly” ...
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Note: this post presumes an understanding of the equalization ratio, which I previously wrote about in “Property Revaluation 101: the Equalization Ratio.” With Jersey City officials recently announcing that they would finally move forward with a property revaluation, a common question has emerged: “is my home currently under-assessed, over-assessed, or fairly assessed?” It’s an important question for many reasons, including: If you are currently over-assessed, you may be eligible to win a tax appeal, thus shaving tax expense off your annual home ownership bill (tax appeals are generally due on or before April 1st ...
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Please note, an update given new state tax data reported in 2017: the 2016 equalized tax rate is reported to be 1.86%. This is the best predictor of what the new tax rate will be, post-Revaluation. I’ve been asked by a few people: “How do I estimate what my taxes will be after the city revalues?” For non-abated homeowners, this is fairly straightforward and based on publicly available tax data. Here’s the formula: Post-Revaluation Tax Bill = Your Property’s Current Market Value * 2.07% This formula is based on the following: Current ...
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. In my last post, I explained how Jersey City’s low equalization ratio was a cause for revaluation. The reason: when a city’s equalization ratio is low, its market values have grown out of sync with its assessed values, and that opens the door to potential tax inequity. In this post, I’ll dive a little deeper, and show how the door swings fully open. Tax inequity harms all taxpayers, albeit at different times and to different degrees depending on where they live. Let’s get civic and start out with a simple example to illustrate ...
This the first post in a series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Jersey City has been growing at a breakneck speed for the past fifteen years. As a city grows, it is required to stop along the way and revalue its real estate. This process is termed “revaluation.” Revaluation is about ensuring that tax assessed values – the number you see on your tax bill – are equal to current market values. As Jersey City has grown, it has failed to revalue itself. As a result, current market values have been allowed to grow grossly out of synch with outdated tax assessed values. But in November ...
