Property taxes top US$10,000 in 12 New York City area counties in 2021

New York

PROPERTY taxes on single-family homes exceeded US$10,000 in 16 counties in 2021, including 12 in the New York City metro area, according to data from real estate research firm Attom Data Solutions.

Overall the average tax increased 1.8 per cent to US$3,785 last year, the smallest pace in 5 years, Attom found.

But the median price of previously-owned, single-family homes set new highs last year, and has climbed even more in the early months of 2022.

That suggests that bills will likely increase next year as tax assessments usually lag behind rising property value, according to Rick Sharga, executive vice-president of market intelligence at Attom.

The company's data also show that the many Americans who had fled coastal cities to warmer and greener places during the Covid-19 pandemic saved thousands of dollars on their property taxes.

Cities in the southern and western states that have seen the tightest labour markets and the hottest housing markets also generally have seen some of the lowest effective property tax rates in the country.

The effective tax rate is the average annual property tax expressed as a percentage of the average estimated market value of homes in each geographic area.

For instance, the average homeowner who moved from the San Francisco area to Boise in Idaho saved about US$6,500 a year in property taxes, according to Attom data.

Those who left the Stamford metro area in Connecticut and bought a house in Miami were able to cut their bill almost in half.

Attom analysed property tax data collected from county tax assessor offices nationwide at the state, metro and county levels, along with estimated market values of single-family homes.

In total, jurisdictions levied US$328 billion in property taxes from such houses in 2021, Attom found.

Many jurisdictions place a cap on the increase in taxes a homeowner can face as the result of a property value's reassessment. BLOOMBERG