Real estate comp (for sale, home sales, taxes)

[cardiofix]

Does NJ have any public websites that lists the transactions for real estate, property values, selling prices etc?

[settlepa]

Dont think so, realtors only have access to that.

[jerseyj]

Try / (broken link) This site shows home sales for the past 18 months. Just type in the zip code. I think you can also type in a specific address. Zillow.com will show you the assessed value of any given property. Realtor.com will give you a detailed description of houses for sale in the zip code area of your interest.
Hope this helps!

[Girl]

My experience with Zillow is that the data is extremely inaccurate - sometimes showing assessed values that are so old as to be obsolete (it showed my parents' house having a assessed value of $250K which is AMAZING LOW for their area and house). On my old NoNJ house it showed the assessed value as of 1988 - which didn't reflect the rise in the market and subsequent reassessment in the years before we bought the house in 2001.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by Girl

My experience with Zillow is that the data is extremely inaccurate - sometimes showing assessed values that are so old as to be obsolete (it showed my parents' house having a assessed value of $250K which is AMAZING LOW for their area and house). On my old NoNJ house it showed the assessed value as of 1988 - which didn't reflect the rise in the market and subsequent reassessment in the years before we bought the house in 2001.

Exactly- and that's because assessed values have nothing to do with market value. As you've seen, if a town doesn't re-assess it's properties every year (which would be virtually impossible), the assessed values quickly become vastly different from market value. A multiplier is used to approximate the market value from the assessed value, but even that becomes difficult as the assessment becomes more dated.

There are some folks around here who are currently freaking because their town is going to re-assess properties this year- they think that if their assessed value goes up by 50%, that their taxes will increase the same percentage. In actuality, reassessment can be a good thing, especially if you've got an older home in a town with lots of new homes- it may lower your valuation relative to the newer stock, thereby allocating more of the tax burden to the new homes. It'll also pick up on all of the additions, decks, pools, etc., that people have put on without permits, again helping your revaluation (unless of course you've got unpermitted work that will get discovered....lol).

Bob

[Swimmom32]

It isnt virtually impossible where I live my house is 6.5 yrs old and jackson hasnt been asessed since 1988..and that is fact....so Zillow is incorrect on most of their properties....

[ira]

I had a completely different experience with Zillow - I found things that were more up-to-date than some towns' records. I think with Zillow, it really depends on the area. They cover some counties better than others.

[dcris]

Here's some sites you may find useful:

http://www.taxrecords.com/ (free, but you need to register to use)

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=DATA

Hope these help!