Yorktown Heights, NY (White Plains, New Paltz, Chester: school district, income, property taxes)

[house shopping]

I still think this statement sais it all!

Yorktown hit with 5 percent tax increase By Adriane Tillman
Vol. 41, Number 46 Issue of 11/14/07 Updated: 11/15/07
“The value of the town is not growing so taxes go up more,” Goldberg said.

[house shopping]

I guess the poster got so much info thrown at him his cat got his tongue.

[julians]

This is my first post, and I mostly signed up just to add a comment here. I've read these many posts because I've been looking at houses in the area, including Yorktown Heights. So I was interested in what house shopping and dma1250 had to say. Having read the posts, my opinion of the town has actually improved. dma made a lot of positive points, and everything he said fits with what I've seen of the town and heard about the schools.

But house shopping doesn't seem to have said anything much. I mean, the fact that the value of the town is going down so taxes go up is a no brainer during a real estate downturn--that has to be true of every town in Westchester. They all depend on property taxes, which are based on the value of homes--if the value goes down the taxes go down. Therefore the 'value of the town' goes down, and taxes go up. That has nothing to do with Yorktown, it is happening to every town. And dma's point about the moratorium being about keeping land undeveloped seems like a no brainer too. I've talked to lots of people in the town and they all say that the town is working hard to keep land from being built on. The rest of house shopper's posts don't make sense. House shopper says he's thrown a lot of info at us, but really he seems to have not said anything at all.

The only question I have is why house shopper could possibly care so much. Don't like the place? Don't buy there. But to post so many comments saying nothing just to be negative? That's weird. I've been reading this blog because it is full of good information on different towns. But this thread has become just a lot of nasty nothing.

[house shopping]

Originally Posted by julians

But house shopping doesn't seem to have said anything much. I mean, the fact that the value of the town is going down so taxes go up is a no brainer during a real estate downturn--that has to be true of every town in Westchester. They all depend on property taxes, which are based on the value of homes--if the value goes down the taxes go down. Therefore the 'value of the town' goes down, and taxes go up.

lets see you said if a homes value goes down the taxes go down. BUT than you said therefor the value of the town goes down and taxes go up. Oxymoron perhaps? perhaps not! if home value goes down and taxes go down than how does the taxes go up in the town? Even though this is incorrect... care to explain your thinking here? because the "value of a town is rooted in the value of the homes which give value to the neighborhods whih in turn give value to the town. The people pay thier high taxes and the town is supposed to give back by improving infrastructure, road systems and civil services. even if you can explain your convaluted thinking here (which would amaze me) you won't be able to justify the tax vs. moratorium. even if you can proove that the morratorium is in place for the preservation of open space. which I have shown to the contrary. Just in case you don't follow allow me to put it this way... if the town no longer allows for development and new construction than there remains the need for taxes to be raised to make up of the loss of new residents who would have paid the taxes but otherwise are not allowed to build. see my point? taxes therefore go up. don't blame the current economic state for the shortfalls of the way in which a town is run.

[MikeNY]

Lots of opinions here but I will tell you from a real estate broker's perspective, Yorktown is suffering because of a few things, especially the taxes. I am in contract on a raised ranch 40 yrs old in Yorktown for $470,000 and the taxes are $13,000. That is insane. Yorktown is nice, but more people are looking in Mahopac vs Yorktown or even Somers, because it is not far at all. I will be at a house off Curry St. today then a house in Mahopac, takes maybe 7 minutes door to door. Some deep parts of Yorktown will take 15 min to Mahopac but that is it.

Somers really has the most bang for your buck, great taxes and great schools but Mahopac is more attractive because lower prices, taxes and schools are still good.

I like Yorktown but when you see all the old, non updated houses that the seniors are selling, it really becomes depressing. You need to spend $600,000+ just to be in a 1/2 way decent home there and it will still need work and don't get me started on Yorktown houses with Lakeland schools...

I am not sure what will happen with prices in Yorktown but they are down a good $100,000 on avg since this whole market change happened in late 2005. I see Yorktown having more problems than the surrounding areas because I do see it 1st hand, more and more of my clients are not even considering Yorktown any more because of the taxes and for what little you get in the home for the price. I have talked to so many sellers the past few months, lots of FSBO's as well, their biggest dilemma in selling are the taxes, even after $50,000-$100,000 price drops the buyers they meet are turned off by the taxes.

[house shopping]

Originally Posted by MikeNY

Lots of opinions here but I will tell you from a real estate broker's perspective, Yorktown is suffering because of a few things, especially the taxes. I am in contract on a raised ranch 40 yrs old in Yorktown for $470,000 and the taxes are $13,000. That is insane. Yorktown is nice, but more people are looking in Mahopac vs Yorktown or even Somers, because it is not far at all. I will be at a house off Curry St. today then a house in Mahopac, takes maybe 7 minutes door to door. Some deep parts of Yorktown will take 15 min to Mahopac but that is it.

Somers really has the most bang for your buck, great taxes and great schools but Mahopac is more attractive because lower prices, taxes and schools are still good.

I like Yorktown but when you see all the old, non updated houses that the seniors are selling, it really becomes depressing. You need to spend $600,000+ just to be in a 1/2 way decent home there and it will still need work and don't get me started on Yorktown houses with Lakeland schools...

I am not sure what will happen with prices in Yorktown but they are down a good $100,000 on avg since this whole market change happened in late 2005. I see Yorktown having more problems than the surrounding areas because I do see it 1st hand, more and more of my clients are not even considering Yorktown any more because of the taxes and for what little you get in the home for the price. I have talked to so many sellers the past few months, lots of FSBO's as well, their biggest dilemma in selling are the taxes, even after $50,000-$100,000 price drops the buyers they meet are turned off by the taxes.

hey thank you or that very informative and may I say very acurate dipiction of Y/YH area. you are spot on in terms of driving dist., the big tax issue, and the implication on the schools. I am a perspective buyer and I can tell you that walking into these homes in the town I too am turned off. homes are not quite there where prices I think should be and yet you see 15K taxes on a small home. its crazy. basicallywhat I've been saying all along.

wonder if you have any insight on the morratorrium in the area... is it set up at all in the name of preservation of open space or is that just hype to mask the true problems of the town? thanks

[MikeNY]

Originally Posted by house shopping

wonder if you have any insight on the morratorrium in the area... is it set up at all in the name of preservation of open space or is that just hype to mask the true problems of the town? thanks

I really don't know to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a front but then again there are more tree huggers in Yorktown than any area I know of, which is fine with me either way but I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to pull one over on us, these towns are all corrupt. Something must be done about the taxes though and in other towns as well as Yorktown, it is getting out of hand, seniors are being pushed out and forced to move down south.

[house shopping]

again you are right. these town are currupt and this is why the problems and issues while the residents pay the highest taxes. Taxes ARE out of hnd in Y/YH and other areas as well. the thing for the smart seller to do is reduce the cost by a substantial amount... I don't believe that there will ever be enough of a tax reduction in YH that will bring it to a decent level. even wi some sort of gov't tax relief it won't drop enough in this area...
the morritorium is set up to try and rase property value but its back-fireing.

[baby1nov]

I just sold my home in Yorktown Heights-before jumping to conclusions-no not because of the taxes or development etc, I just needed something bigger. There are buyers out there, I had a number of showings and actually I accepted an offer about 2 weeks after it was put on the market. I agree the taxes can be high in Yorktown but is there really anywhere in Westchester/Putnam, that has great schools, great commute, nice neighborhood for a nice house under $500K that has 'cheap' taxes? I'm just saying that all things considered-Yorktown Heights is a great place to live. I don't beleive there is such thing as a perfect town. If you aren't paying high taxes then you are probably paying a lot for the house in such areas like Somers. As far as Putnam county from what I understand it is only the Mahopac school district that is good, and I didn't notice a very significant difference in the taxes in that school disctrict if you are looking at a similar house in yorktown heights to a similiar house mahopac,though yes it can vary. (13K on a 40 year raised ranch does sound out of the ordinary but thats' without knowing property/house size or lakeland vs yh school disctrict, my taxes were about $8500 a year).

[jdhall1]

Originally Posted by MikeNY

Lots of opinions here but I will tell you from a real estate broker's perspective, Yorktown is suffering because of a few things, especially the taxes. I am in contract on a raised ranch 40 yrs old in Yorktown for $470,000 and the taxes are $13,000. That is insane. Yorktown is nice, but more people are looking in Mahopac vs Yorktown or even Somers, because it is not far at all. I will be at a house off Curry St. today then a house in Mahopac, takes maybe 7 minutes door to door. Some deep parts of Yorktown will take 15 min to Mahopac but that is it.

Somers really has the most bang for your buck, great taxes and great schools but Mahopac is more attractive because lower prices, taxes and schools are still good.

I am not sure what will happen with prices in Yorktown but they are down a good $100,000 on avg since this whole market change happened in late 2005. I see Yorktown having more problems than the surrounding areas because I do see it 1st hand, more and more of my clients are not even considering Yorktown any more because of the taxes and for what little you get in the home for the price. I have talked to so many sellers the past few months, lots of FSBO's as well, their biggest dilemma in selling are the taxes, even after $50,000-$100,000 price drops the buyers they meet are turned off by the taxes.

That same raised ranch just about 30 minutes away up the Danbury area would be around $385,000 with the taxes being about $4200, so we are getting a good amount of people coming up here from that area to look for homes. A client of mine started looking down in Mahopac but came up here when they realized the property taxes are about 1/2 and prices are more friendly to their budgets. They told me they saw something they liked around $350,000 but their taxes would be about 8000 a year, and they are under contract for a home that is very similiar to the $350,000 asking price in Mahopac for around $320,000 with taxes being about $3300 a year.