Just how bad are the property taxes in NJ? (South River: to rent, homeowners insurance)

[OnThaGrind]

I lived in NJ for almost 10 yrs, but i was young and not looking to buy a home, so i never paid attention to it. I moved to florida, and now i am looking to come back to raise my son in NJ or NYC. The question at hand right now for this post is... just how bad are the property taxes in NJ? i know it can vary from north to south jersey. Maybe we can compare the property taxes in north, central and south NJ? I know here in FL, everybody complains about the property taxes and i really dont know if they are truly that bad. Thanks for all the help in advance.

[nic529]

Sorry to be the first one to give you the bad news - I live in northern Burlington County - I have a 1600 sq ft cape cod - 4bed/2bath - almost 1/2 acre - my house is about 55 years old.....we pay $6000/yr. And that is about to go up because we are building a new school. I don't think you'll find much less then 4 or 5K even in the lower counties.

Good luck in making your decision.

[tahiti]

you're going to get 100 different answers to this, but i think the universal theme will be "BAD". but it's all relative (kudos to the poster who replied in another thread about her $18K taxes, because she's right).

NJ has 600+ municipalities with different tax rates. It's impossible to gauge.

There are posters here paying $14K on a 2500 sq ft house. Other (like me) paying nowhere NEAR that!

I know people paying over $20K, I know people paying $3K.

I can tell you that homeowners insurance will be MUCH cheaper here than WPB.

[billb7581]

I have a 2000 sq foot on .33 acre and pay 4500.00 (Cinnaminson)

[1luvvt]

i have 2800 on 1/3 acre in central nj(ocean county).in 2003 the taxes were 4300 now they are 6400. they also reassed everyone so i expect them to rise.i also have 1800sqft on 1/2 acre in vt and pay 3600 which includes 21ft dock on lake.they claim high taxes in vt but i don't see it that way. it is all relative.

[SabrinaSpellman]

I pay 7k a year for an average sized house on a little less than 1/4 acre.. (Monmouth County)...I'd say it's ridiculous, especially with the fact that they continue to go up yearly.

Is there even a cap on how much taxes can go up in NJ, anyone know?

[nic529]

Caps go by municipality and usually talks of such will come out during election time to say something like "i will not let taxes go up more then 10% per year" or something like that. It doesn't mean they won't once they get in office. To my knowledge, there is no cap anywhere I can think of - the sky is the limit

[SSchirm]

Thank you tahiti! I was the one who talked about the $18k taxes, and where i come from (Westchester NY - 4bedroom 1,900sq ft .19 acres - for those who didn't read the other post), our realtor said "Oh, ONLY 18K - THAT'S GREAT!" seriously!! he said that!!

[regarese]

I don't know the square footage of our home (in South River-Middlesex County), but it's a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath colonial with a 40x200 lot. Our taxes are $4k a year and rarely go up. We've only lived there 1 year, but my aunt and uncle live in the same town and I don't think theirs have risen significantly in the 20 years they lived there. Established town.

[j2the4]

The ad valorem tax rate for where I live was 2.4% in 2007. Don't know what everyone else's rates are but I think it's pretty high. I'm a new homeowner and I'm beginning to second guess the economic benefit of home ownership if taxes are this high - maybe should've stuck to renting?