Taxes in Troy, NY? (New York, Albany: high crime, house, neighborhood)

[looking9]

We are thinking of moving to Troy, NY. Could someone give us an idea of the property taxes?

[mrkool]

Looks like it's about 2.71 % of assessed value. Pretty high, as all of New York state tends to be.

[looking9]

And one never knows when they will be raised. Do you know of a place around Albany area with lower taxes?

[lilacbard]

taxes are about 3 % but but but.... troy's school are crap everyone who hopes for a high school grad at least... has to send their children to priv school... college's are great in troy own most of the property one of the reasons taxes are so high...

[looking9]

Is the value that is taxed more or less the market value? Has it jumped recently or does the assessed value move up slowly, like in NYC?

[convergent]

I am in Albany and the assessed value has no relationship to the market value, so I assume Troy is the same. We have a home we are about to sell that we bought for $245K about 8 years ago, and it should sell for about $525K now. Its still assessed at $255K and the taxes are about $8K/year. I believe Troy taxes may be a little higher. I am in Town of Colonie which has been pretty low compared to the surrounding towns here. As was mentioned, the Troy school system is not very highly though of, and the city is very spotty with some areas being very nice historical homes, and other areas being very high crime. You need to really pay attention to where you are buying. Troy has traditionally been though of in the area as a "blue collar" town, and much of the industry there has left. RPI is a very good and very expensive engineering oriented college in the middle of Troy, and they are spinning off a lot of small tech companies in an incubator area, so that is the upside. Some people love Troy, and some people wouldn't put it on their list of places to live. Like I said, things vary greatly from one place to another in the city. On the school situation, the only large Catholic high school (Catholic Central) in the area is located in Troy and that is an option for avoiding Troy High School if that is an issue for you.

[gdowler]

Its still assessed at $255K and the taxes are about $8K/year

Jeez.....that is like Long Island taxes. I didn't realize how high taxes were up there! Is downtown Albany the same with the taxes...like Pine Hills, Helderberg, Delaware Ave?

[convergent]

Well it is half what it would be down in southern NY... like in Westchester and Long Island. I would guess that taxes here are half what they are in Long Island. I am currently in Town of Colonie which currently has some of the lowest taxes in the Capital District. I do know too that Troy was one of many local municipalities that had a HUGE school tax increase in the last five years... I think they went up like 50% in one year. That has happened to a lot of places around here due to mis-management for several years.

As a point of reference on the home I used as a reference... it is 3000 sq ft, plus another 1250 sq ft finished in a walk-out basement, inground pool, and in a very desirable neighborhood inside the highway loop... so it is on the upper end of the "middle class" homes. I would guess that a house like that on Long Island would be a bit more.

[looking9]

So I guess the NY rule that taxes can only go up so much a year doesn't apply to the school tax part. We are very concerned about moving somewhere, only to get an unexpected tax rise.

[Fearringtonflash]

Originally Posted by gdowler

Its still assessed at $255K and the taxes are about $8K/year

Jeez.....that is like Long Island taxes. I didn't realize how high taxes were up there! Is downtown Albany the same with the taxes...like Pine Hills, Helderberg, Delaware Ave?

If the house is worth $525,000, that is an effective property tax rate of 1.52%. Perhaps high, but not outrageous.