| Author | Message | ||
     Mlj |
Now that the reval will go through...what will you do? (i.e. live with the higher taxes; follow-up with a county tax appeal; move within Maplewood to a home with lower taxes; move out of town, or out of Essex county altogether; plan to bring a lawsuit against the TC, or the township; not yet sure of plans but will definitely research other places with an eye toward moving out....) | ||
| Overtaxdalready |
We've started talking about moving out of Essex county. Taxes here are just going to keep rising. Enough is enough. | ||
| Dave23 |
I'm seeing a huge increase but I'm definitely going to tough it out. I'm sort of "lucky" because I was one of the people who bought in last summer's overheated market. At the time, interest rates were high. As it happens, I'll save almost as much every month when I refinance (soon) as I'm going to have to shell out with the increase. I also want to stay and fight for a fairer property tax system and a fairer way to fund our schools. I also love Maplewood and don't want to move back to the city (since that's the only other place my wife and I would live). | ||
| Mem |
I'm going to stay for at least a year to see if my budget can handle this. I wouldn't bother if I didn't have so many friends and family here. Meanwhile, I'm buying lottery tickets. | ||
| Lydial |
I'm with Dave23 - I'm going to stay and fight for a fairer property tax system and a fairer way to fund our schools. I love this town and although the reval fight was exhausting and daunting, I was inspired and often awed by the active community spirit in Maplewood. I'm eager to attend the proposed March 27th constitutional convention on restructuring property tax that may be held in Maplewood. | ||
| Wilbur |
In the near term, we're going to file a tax appeal with the county and try our luck with that. We think we have a pretty good case. Long-term, we're going to stick it out regardless of the tax appeal outcome, and give it five years or so. Then, if taxes have gone still higher and the town's services haven't risen commensurately in that time, plus the schools are worse or plateaued, we will start looking at Millburn or Summit. We like the immediate area too much to leave entirely. | ||
| Nakaille |
Here is the link for the NJ program for seniors and disabled people to apply for a freeze in their property taxes: www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/prntfrez.htm If you have a neighbor, relative or friend who is not online but may be eligible for this program, please consider printing out the form for them as well as the instructions and eligibility information. Bacata | ||
| Mtierney |
Heard today from a very reliable source that the folks living at The Top who are really getting slammed are filing a class action suit against the town! One would think they would have the money and resources to move, yes? It just may be that they can recognize a crime perpetrated against taxpayers when they see one. | ||
| Overtaxdalready |
Mt, do you have any details on the suit? | ||
| Bobk |
Basically we are going to stay for at least three more years to see our youngest through high school. It doesn't seem fair to disrupt his life at that age if we don't have to. After that, we will probably be moving. It was originally our intent to stay in our home until retirement age, but given the taxes and the new east-west split in town I am not so sure we want to stay here. At one point we were thinking of, in a few years, looking into a condo in the SO/Maplewood area. With the slam that The Top took, I guess that is pretty much out of the question for a retirement home. Not everyone on the Westside of town is wealthy. We make a decent living for sure, but we have two kids to get through college in the next seven years and then are faced with retirement two years after that. The additional taxes plus the uncertainty about property values are going to hurt, and hurt bad. | ||
| Commonsense |
The process is still flawed when you look at it over a three year period as the state suggests. The end result is that you have an extremely small amount of the town shouldering an inordinate amount of the financial burden for the community. The folks who might have been thinking of moving to somewhat bigger homes and STAYING in Maplewood will now move out. Folks that have bought inthe past few years with the expectations that taxes would gradually increase will now have to decide to stay or go. for those who want to move, the price that homes will clear the market will be so far away from the revaluation estimates that each month will produce a series of further cuts in prices (and further appeals of the new tax bills). And worse, folks moving to Maplewood for all the right reasons over the past few years will have little affordability at these new tax rates and will pass on Maplewood. The slow but inexorable slide in the quality of life in Maplewood has begun and you can thank the Town Committee for sheparding its arrival. | ||
| Nohero |
I'm not sure what reasons "The Top" would have to gripe. According to the reval data, the guy who had the biggest increase paid slightly more for his place in June, 2000, than he was assessed for. How could he argue that his place was worth less? Similarly, the assessments seem to track the recent sales pretty well. Since this is a condo, similar units should have similar assessments (With allowance for the view on higher floors. There's that "view charge" again!). As for the original question on this thread - we're going to pursue any recourse that makes sense, if we still think our assessment is out of whack. No plans to leave, though, and we're hoping for a change in school funding. | ||
| Interalia |
Commonsense: I agree with you on every point. Maplewood has always been one of the highest taxed communities in the state (in the country). When I moved into town 19 years ago I knew that every year I could expect an increase and I was okay with that. What has just transpired is obscene. How could any thinking individual not question the rationale of this reval? The economy is down and dropping. There is no way the assessed values are what they were a year ago. We are getting squeezed from both ends...our homes are not going to sell for anywhere near the CV assessed rate; and our property taxes are in the stratosphere. Why would anyone move into this town? And let's not forget all the wonderful PR Maplewood has just received in the NY Times and Star Ledger. Has anyone confirmed if the residents at The Top filed a class action lawsuit? Frankly, two months of 'meaningful dialogue' with the TC has been fruitless. | ||
| Alidah |
My realtor told me that my house has lost 10% of its' value since December. I fervently hope that the tax rate winds up being close to 2.75. We'll just sit tight for the time being, but we are definitely considering our options, which is not something we were doing three months ago. And as far as the massive improvements this house continues to need, well, they'll just need to wait. Again, that's not something we were saying three months ago. | ||
| Lseltzer |
Interalia: >>Maplewood has always been one of the highest taxed communities in the state (in the country). I really don't think this is true. I agree that we live in a high-tax area, but another recent Star Ledger article noted that Millburn had the highest taxes in the county and Maplewood didn't seem much higher than the county average. Do you have information to the contrary? | ||
| Melidere |
Well, our standing in the country seems to be secure if i'm reading this table right: Per Capita Property Taxes by State I think it is interesting that we are joined at the top of that list by Connecticut, long known as a haven for people in the high income brackets. This next article put it in context for me: State Property Taxes hit Ordinary Folks Harder They say: "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the bottom 20 percent of income-earning families in the U.S. pay about 12 percent of their income in property taxes. In comparison, those in the top 20 percent income bracket pay only 3 percent or less. Property tax relief for the folks at the bottom is clearly in order. They are bearing a tax burden four times as much as those in top income brackets. " The thing is, we'd all like to think of ourselves as 'ordinary folks' but even in the last census we had a median income in this town of close to 70,000 when the nationwide median was closer to 35,000. I'm not sure that the bulk of the residents of this town aren't better off with property taxes rather than income taxes. At least you have some modicum of control over how the money is spent. | ||
| Lisat |
We're going to knock down the swing set and the garage and let it all go to pasture. Then we're going to take our .16 acre, which is valued at 227K (hey that's over 1 million an acre/just what the tax man said it ain't) and we're going to get zoned as farmland (we can see a barn from our house). Then we're going to do what some of our great politicians have done. I do like to live my life the way my role models have (X-gov whitman and that flat tax rich man politician) and pay near-nothing in property taxes for my farmland. Plus, I'll be able to get paid by the federal government not to plant anything. Think I can get re-zoned for the farm if I arrive with hayseed in my hair? No, seriously folks... Some of the retirees will sell their houses for less than they are assessed. And we can all go to appeal our taxes with their depressed sales as new comparables. And the taxes will go down a bit. But I did think it would be a good idea for everyone who thought it was unfair to put a for sale sign by owner on their lawn. Then go the the county with the bids which would be lower than the assessments. Or we can buy each others houses at lower than assessed bids but not actually move. Then take the new sale prices down to the county for an appeal. But you've got to trust the new guy who owns your house. Now if you think those ideas are crazy, you should hear what I want to do with Springfield Avenue. Buy it up. Remove the buildings. Flood it. Make a man-made lake for boating, etc. Put up restaurants and other touristy attractions. And watch the lakefront property rise in value and taxes. I've always thought that the only thing missing from Maplewood was a beach! Can we do it for 10 million? | ||
| Lisat |
Or we can just turn my property (and my neighbors') into a lake. It floods naturally. | ||
| Thomas |
I wonder if the assessor would consider looking at assessments in the Hilton section that are in the 120-130 range and are now selling in the 160-180k range. The low assessments are also part of the problem. | ||
| Lseltzer |
Thomas: Which houses are they? See the map at http://www.bpna.org/reval/2000Markup-down_f.html, which shows differences between assessents and 2000 sales prices. I see no pattern of underassessment in Hilton. Please tell me where this other data is so that I can put it in the maps. | ||
| Joancrystal |
My new taxes are so high I could sell my house east of the tracks, buy a larger house west of the tracks, significantly reduce my taxes and pocket a sizeable profit. That is if Certified's valuations are to be believed. I'm still not convinced. | ||
| Alidah |
Lseltzer: I don't think that you can compare Millburn and Maplewood taxes. Keep in mind that Millburn includes Short Hills. Millburn is one of the wealthiest towns in the state, along with, let's see, I think it's: Tewksbury, Alpine, Mountain Lakes, Harding Twp, and maybe one or two others that I have forgotten. (We're talking multimillion dollar, multi acre estates. And pretty uniform housing stock, compared to us.) I get that info from the last school report card the the Star Ledger--the DFGs. When I get my mailer from Prudential with the real estate stats from 2000 I will post the average sale price in Maplewood and Millburn. I think the difference is vast. From a tax standpoint we should be comparing ourselves with South Orange and Montclair, don't you think? I think we're pretty much in line with them, tax-wise. | ||
| Lseltzer |
Alidah, I agree with you completely. I was reacting to Interalia's statement that "Maplewood has always been one of the highest taxed communities in the state (in the country)." I personally consider Maplewood to be a high-tax area, but not out of line with comparable towns in the area. | ||
| Alidah |
I guess I get a little crazy when anyone mentions Millburn on this board. | ||
| Beach |
Lisat, you can always do what Hillary did, you know, invest a thousand and make a hundred thousand in like a day! Or better yet, nightly rentals of that room with a view of the barn! Heck, tell them George Washington slept in it! Yes, it's ALWAYS good to have role models! | ||
| Nilmiester |
Hillary= Nurse Rachitt. Time for your medication everyone... |
