The purpose of this revaluation is to ensure a fair and equitable redistribution of the City's tax levy so all property owners are shouldering their fair share of the City's tax burden. This will be the first property revaluation since 1988.
The property revaluation is being done for several reasons. The New Jersey Constitution requires that all real property be assessed according to the same standard of value; and such property shall be assessed for taxation under general laws and by uniform rules. According to state law, every property's fair share is based on its market value as of the assessing date.
Currently, most properties in Jersey City no longer reflect the assessed value which was assigned to them during the last property revaluation, which was conducted 22 years ago
in 1988.
During those 22 years many changes in the real estate market have taken place-new housing and commercial properties have been constructed while older, dilapidated structures have been torn down, rehabilitated or replaced. Prices have fluctuated. Houses which appear exactly the same from the street may be drastically different inside due to renovation, repairs, deterioration or lack of maintenance, the addition or removal of a rental unit, or a change of property class from residential to commercial.
When you compare the current true market value to the assessed market value (set in 1988) of many properties across the city, you can see that they are dramatically skewed and out of line with the average assessed market value of city properties as a whole.
This means that instead of each property paying its fair share of city taxes based on its assessed value (which should be an accurate reflection of each property's value in today's real estate market), many properties are under assessed and are therefore under paying property taxes.
When this happens, other property owners are picking up the extra tax burden. An example of this would be someone who bought and renovated a house a few years ago when the real estate bubble was at its peak. Now that the real estate market has collapsed, that homeowner may be paying taxes on a property which is no longer worth anywhere near its 2006 assessment. That property owner is probably paying more than her fair share.
Source: http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/tax_assessment.aspx?id=6312
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