Montclair Property Taxes: Some Questions (Woodbridge: house, buyer, schools)

[Brooklyn Boy]

Yes, another Brooklynite contemplating a move to Montclair (don't worry, I'm ducking)

I apologize if this has been discussed before, I did a search but could not find this exact topic.

The question is about some aspects of property tax methodology in Montclair, NJ. We all know that property taxes are high in Montclair so how taxes are assessed is an important issue, obviously, for a prospective home buyer there.

If I understand correctly, property taxes are based on assessed value and assessed value roughly increases with market value.

So that implies, of course, that in the past decade or so assessed value of property in Montclair must have increased significantly.

In that period did the increase in property tax correspond roughly to the rate of increase in assessed value? In other words, if a property's assessed value increased 300% since 1997, would the property tax have increased roughly 300%?

Or is there a mechanism, some kind of adjustment or limit on the rate of increase, that has kept property taxes increasing roughly at the rate of increase of inflation?

If, in fact, property tax revenues have increased roughly as much as assessed value then this must imply that Montclair government has realized a huge windfall in additional revenue over the past decade. Is this the case? And if yes has it resulted in a tremendous increase in municipal and educational spending?

Were property values to decline, so would assessed value, obviously. Would this result in a concomitant decrease in property tax? Or would the rate be increased to keep tax revenues roughly flat?

Finally, I have read that property tax is dependent in part on issues such as the presence of an in-ground pool, the number of bedrooms, etc. Is that correct?

Again, my apologies if this has been discussed before but any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[brook2ga]

Montclair just did a reval......this might help:

FAQ About Montclair Tax Hike (Baristanet) (http://www.baristanet.com/2006/07/faq_about_montclair_tax_hike.php - broken link)

[BobKovacs]

The assessed value doesn't change as the market value changes- it only changes when the town reassesses. For example, my house in Woodbridge was assessed at around $72k, I bought it in 1999 for $105k, and sold it in 2007 for $320k. The house is still assessed for $72k.

What they do is take the total assessed value of all property in the town, and divide the total amount of property tax the city needs to meet it's budgets, the county portion of the tax, and the schools portion of the tax by that total assessed value. You then get to pay your portion of the taxes based on your assessment.

So, it doesn't matter that your home has increased in "value" by 300%- it only matters that the total amount of $$ the town needs to collect has increased, and they therefore have to increase the tax rate. Once they reassess, the total assessed value of the town's properties goes up, so the tax rate gets adjusted downward, but the total tax collected remains the same (unless they need to increase revenue, which they always do.....).

[Brooklyn Boy]

Got it. Thanks. That's very helpful. So the issue during reassessments is making sure you don't get assessed at a level higher than you deserve...