Last week every homeowner in Basking Ridge received their little white post card telling them how much they paid in taxes last year (2023) and what their assessment is for this year (2024). This has caused quite a stir as many experienced a steep rise in their assessment. One thing to point out first is that the difference in the assessment is not necessarily the difference in the taxes you’ll pay. The tax levy has not been finalized yet. The budget will be introduced at the next Township Committee Meeting and finalized in April or May – at that time, the tax rate will be determined and announced. Will your taxes go up? Yes. Will they go up the exact same percentage that your assessment did? No.
I wrote a blog post in 2009 – FIFTEEN years ago, that blows my mind – especially because it’s still searchable! You can read it here, the context is the same, the numbers are different. Since then I have run the same analysis at different intervals and have found that property values are typically higher than tax assessment. For many years I’d estimate that houses were selling between 6 and 10% over assessed value. Since there was so much chatter in all the Facebook groups today, I thought I’d do the analysis again.
Here’s what I found:
I looked at the last 12 months of sales in Basking Ridge and compared sale price to assessed value – keep in mind that the MLS doesn’t always have the most up to date info – but for the most part it is accurate. I ignored the properties that were new construction – either totally new like on Fenwick or teardowns that were rebuilt but were not yet re-assessed when they were listed. There were 122 townhouse/condo sales – sale prices were, on average, 22% above tax assessment. Only two sold for less than assessment, the rest ranged from 2 to 49% over. Also notable, average sale price of these condos and townhouses was $514,718.
There were 164 single family home sales. Sale price were, on average 26% above tax assessment. Only one sold for less than assessment, the rest ranged from 1 to 70% over. Removing the outliers (10 that were over 50% over), the average is 24%. Average sale price of the single family homes was $1,210,008.
Property values in 07920 are up almost 10% in the last 12 months. They are up well over 20% since the start of the pandemic. Tax assessments in town follow market value…. tax rate won’t be set until after the budget is approved. Your taxes may not go up as much as your assessment did.
Jennifer Blanchard Team
Berkshire Hathaway Fox and Roach HomeServices NJ Properties
