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Property taxes in NJ...especially the North are out of control! Why?
How can we get our property taxes lower? It's not unheard of to pay $1000/month in taxes. How can this be?
I don't know, it's appalling. I've never been in a position to own anything, so I'm a renter (of course I'm paying through my rent), but a friend of mine in Midland Park told me her mortgage payment, which includes taxes, is $1800 a month--and only $800 is the actual mortgage. This on a 3 or 4 bedroom cape sitting on maybe a 1/4 acre of property.
My taxes have just gone up once again now hitting over the $8000.00 mark. The bill claims that despite this I have gotten $2000.00 in state aid. Anybody know how that works cause I'm not seeing it
I don't know, it's appalling. I've never been in a position to own anything, so I'm a renter (of course I'm paying through my rent), but a friend of mine in Midland Park told me her mortgage payment, which includes taxes, is $1800 a month--and only $800 is the actual mortgage. This on a 3 or 4 bedroom cape sitting on maybe a 1/4 acre of property.
$1800 including taxes for a mortgage for a 3/4 BR cape on a 1/4 acre in Midland Park?!? $800 for the mortgage? That doesn't sound bad to me these days!
$1800 including taxes for a mortgage for a 3/4 BR cape on a 1/4 acre in Midland Park?!? $800 for the mortgage? That doesn't sound bad to me these days!
When was the house purchased, 25 or 28 years ago?
Probably at least 20. Her oldest kid is 18 and I think they bought the house when they got married. I didn't know her back then so I don't know what their circumstances were when they bought the house--how much down, etc.
Prices were substantially lower then. I grew up in Midland Park myself, and when I was a kid (now we're going back 40 years) it was semi-rural. We kept chickens in the backyard and the people behind us had horses. Most people made their living as plumbers and electricians or mechanics. I didn't know anyone whose father commuted to NYC. As a matter of fact, in the 1970's the wealthier town of Ho-Ho-Kus began sending its high school kids to Midland Park instead of Ridgewood (this lasted about 20 years). On the first day of school, the newspaper covered this change with a headline that actually said "Blue Blood Mixes With Blue Collar." It's only been in the past two decades that Midland Park suddenly became a "desirable" town to live in, builders scrambled to build oversized houses on every wooded parcel available, and prices rose accordingly.
Probably at least 20. Her oldest kid is 18 and I think they bought the house when they got married. I didn't know her back then so I don't know what their circumstances were when they bought the house--how much down, etc.
Prices were substantially lower then. I grew up in Midland Park myself, and when I was a kid (now we're going back 40 years) it was semi-rural. We kept chickens in the backyard and the people behind us had horses. Most people made their living as plumbers and electricians or mechanics. I didn't know anyone whose father commuted to NYC. As a matter of fact, in the 1970's the wealthier town of Ho-Ho-Kus began sending its high school kids to Midland Park instead of Ridgewood (this lasted about 20 years). On the first day of school, the newspaper covered this change with a headline that actually said "Blue Blood Mixes With Blue Collar." It's only been in the past two decades that Midland Park suddenly became a "desirable" town to live in, builders scrambled to build oversized houses on every wooded parcel available, and prices rose accordingly.
And this has become the problem with too many of the formerly "middle class" towns in Northern NJ: most of them have become "desirable" to wealthy people, pricing the middle class people (what's left of them) out: Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, Rutherford, Fair Lawn, and even towns slightly lower on the totem pole like Wood Ridge and Hasbrouck Heights which would have been considered "middle income" areas twenty years ago, are no longer middle income. And all of these towns are now more white collar than blue collar (maybe neck and neck in WR and HH). Midland Park, Westwood, and Glen Rock (not really ever a middle income area, but nothing like the mini Ridgewood it is today) seem to have really skyrocketed on the "desirable" scale during the past 10-20 years. And the insane housing prices in those towns reflect it.
The "middle income" areas have become areas for the wealthy. The historically higher income towns have become areas for the filthy rich.
Relatives live in Vernon, NJ 3/2/1 house built in 1986, taxes are $9,887.00 a year. When I lived in Vernon back in 1987 my taxes on a 4/2/2 bilevel was $1,300.
Welcome to Hoboken. Here they raised my taxes by 47%. Criminal.
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taxes again
