NYC’s Property Taxes Are Crushing Homeowners | Hacker News Reader

NYC’s Property Taxes Are Crushing Homeowners

bloomberg.com

LMAO these are very low taxes. You have a $2.8 Million dollar house and expect what? It's a 1% tax. Also the lady saying the house hasn't been updated in 40 years: [News Flash] The house isn't what's valuable. It's the land that it sits on. That's why people are buying the neighbors land for MILLIONS of dollars, and knocking the house down. The lands value has probably grown 300%-400% since she moved in, but we're supposed to feel bad because she has to pay taxes on it.

I can't read the article because bloomberg says it has detected unusual activity... If the person has been there 40 years, the person is very likely retired. Retired people might be on fixed income and so forth. 1% of 3 million is $30,000 per year. Compare this to other areas where property is cheaper and one might be paying $3,000 per year for property tax. I am all for paying fair taxes, but I think one should be able to continue living in ones home and not be forced out due to huge property tax increases. Not sure what the right balance is.

The city could offer the option of a reverse mortgage to cover the taxes ... you get to choose:

- pay the tax yourself,

- sell,

- live out your life in your home, but not pass it on.

Lol. Compared to tax rates right outside the city, still ridiculously low.

Rates, or actual bills? Mill-rates don't really say anything given how wild property values are.

As a percentage, NYC real estate taxes are pretty reasonable. The overall taxes are high because the value of the property has been skyrocketing.

I feel a bit sad for the people who are being taxed out of the neighborhood, but I don't think they would give up the run up in the resale value. They're going to get all of that gain when they sell. ALas, that might not be for awhile.

That is a good question/distinction, but even with that taken into account, some of the numbers in that article are not that far off from other places. That $2.3 million dollar house had $28,000/yr in property taxes, and here in Oregon that would be somewhere in the $30k/yr range.

However in Oregon there was a measure passed in the 90s that limits gains in evaluation of an existing house to 3%, and as a result every house always goes up by 3% assessed value. That makes it more predictable, as you can always expect that value to go up every year.

Yikes! We have a similarly capped appreciation rate, and my annual property taxes are much less that $10K CAD here in Toronto. Those numbers seem wild to me, but who funds what and how can vary so much between jurisdictions, it's hard to make sense of it.

Both. I swapped a city coop for a similarly priced house in Westchester and the tax bill quadrupled.

How did your ranking on the property ladder change with that move? If you moved from a middle decile to the top, that would make sense. I would guess that there are enough zillionaires in New York that everyone else gets to pay less.

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