Why is SW West Orange so inexpensive?

[bradykp]

Originally Posted by labcjo

Actually, the breakdown for property taxes is something like:

60% goes to the town's schools
20% to the town in general
20% to the county

So from my understanding, West Orange's taxes have little to do with Newark. It all happens on a municipal level. Cedar Grove is in Essex County and has very low taxes. Bergen County, largely all affluent, has the highest average property taxes in the state.

i think your %s are pretty close. We have very full schools, which is certainly part of it. We also have things like a professional fire department, which some towns don't, or they share with other towns. I've been told that our county taxes are actually on the low end, relative to many other counties, but i don't know if that's true. Apparantly we have some good revenue at the county level from the prison (they house immigrants being detained for fed gov't), and some other things.

Those zillow prices don't look very accurate to me though.

[bradykp]

Originally Posted by ALackOfCreativity

Bergen county isn't blaming Hackensack for high property taxes because if the numbers above for Essex are accurate, Bergen county county-level taxes are half as much if that and don't get swallowed by any one municipality/group of municipalities.

People are much more content with their taxes when they are lower and those taxes provide a decent value proposition in terms of services.

on a percentage of total basis, or on a property tax rate basis?