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My husband & I are possibly going to be relocating to NJ and I'm trying to get an idea of property tax rates, and the differences in tax rates between towns/counties.
I am looking here NJ Division of Taxation - General Tax Rates by County and Municipality
at the "general tax rates", however some of them don't make sense. For example, in Essex you have most between 2-4%, however West Orange is listed at 12.983? I looked at West Orange's town site and it also says "The Total Tax Rate is $11.39 per $100 of Assessed Value (2007)".
Am I misunderstanding something, or are people in West Orange really paying 12%? As in, nearly 50K/year on a 400K home??? There are other towns in Union County where the "general tax rate" also seems very very high compared to other areas. I get that taxes are high, I just can't tell if they're THAT high (in which case, why so much variation between towns) or if I am misinterpreting things.
If you look at the top of that site, it states "The Effective Tax Rate is a statistical study that enables the comparison of one district to another district (based on the assumption that all districts are at 100% valuation)." You have to look at the effective tax rate, not the general tax rate, to compare. The general tax rate has wild differences because many districts, including West Orange were not at 100% valuation. You can't use the effective tax rate to figure out what the actual dollar value will be, though; it's only good for comparison.
West Orange actual tax rate is probably going to be 3.445%, based on 2011 "market value" assessments. The 11.39% tax rate was based on old assessments, which were considerably less than market value. So you'll pay $13780 on a home assessed at (not necessarily sold at, despite the "market value" claim) $400,000. The 3.445% rate isn't final yet, which is why I say "probably".
You can find the 2011 assessed value (prior to any appeals) for any W.O. home at Appraisal Systems.
Union county tends to be significantly lower in taxes, as you can see from the effective tax rates. I don't know what the deal is with Winfield Township; it's a bit of a historical oddity.
I saw that the effective rate was for comparisons, but couldn't figure out how a 12% rate was feasible... makes sense (somewhat) if it was 12% based on outdated evaluations.
Your best bet is probably to just look at a site like Zillow that shows actual taxes for houses for sale. That will give you a decent idea of what to expect.
Sorry for the brief hijack, but could someone pls explain how the 2% property tax cap in NJ is implemented? Clearly it is not on a personal level as we've seen posts of people whose taxes have increased by a lot more than that this year.
Sorry for the brief hijack, but could someone pls explain how the 2% property tax cap in NJ is implemented? Clearly it is not on a personal level as we've seen posts of people whose taxes have increased by a lot more than that this year.
It is a bit meaningless as it allows towns to bypass it either through a local referendum vote or through one of the exceptions. A town can justify going over the 2% cap in order to deal with debt payments, health benefit and pension costs for workers, "emergencies" and school budgets are also exempt in cases of rising enrollment.
Considering debt service, pension and healthcare and schools are the biggest items in a town budget the cap has little impact. Even if they can't find a way around it through those, they have the old "emergency" hat to pull from. Last years snow removal costs = emergency in many places to exceed the cap.
What most people don't know is that NJ had a 4% cap for a long time. That cap had even more exception and was largely ignored. The new 2% cap is a little stricter, but leaves plenty of ways for towns to get around it.
Thanks everyone for the info! I'm realizing that there is no good way to really compare property taxes between towns or counties. I'm getting a pretty good idea of what to expect looking at specific property listings though.... I can expect to pay property taxes roughly equivalent to my entire mortgage payment here in NC.
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