The city’s long-feared revaluation of privately-owned, taxable properties is now in full swing, with 22 inspectors canvassing neighborhoods in the Jersey City Heights and Greenville.
By the time the current months-long reval is complete, the vast majority of Jersey City’s approximately 54,243 taxable properties will have been evaluated.
The reval, which began last fall, is the city’s first since 1988 and will continue through the end of this year.
In a “reval,” a city reassesses all of its taxable properties so that they are paying taxes in line with the current value of the property. Because some properties (particularly older ones) are paying based on an assessment from more than two decades ago, they are paying a smaller share of the tax burden, whereas newer properties with a more recent assessment may be paying more. A reval equalizes the tax burden.
‘They were there for about 10 minutes, maybe a little less.’ – Cate Reilly
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In any revaluation, about one-third of property owners will see their taxes increase, according to real estate attorneys. Another third of property owners will see their taxes decrease, while a third will see little or no change in their tax rate.
But many homeowners are skeptical of the process and fear that taxes paid by others – for example, commercial property owners – are likely to go down, while their own taxes will go up.
With the revaluation now in full swing, some homeowners say the process has lessened their anxiety, while others are still concerned.
In the field
So far, about 50 percent of the properties in Jersey City Heights and Greenville have been inspected as part of the reval, according to Mark Duda, a project manager with Realty Appraisal Co., the West New York-based firm the city has retained to conduct the reval.
“We’ve inspected about 10,000 properties out of the [more than] 48,000 that we’ll be inspecting this year,” Duda said. “What we’ve done are the stand-alone [residential] properties, and stand-alone industrial and big commercial properties. We haven’t done any of the condos yet. The condos go pretty quickly. We feel good about the pace.”
The inspectors will soon be visiting properties in Society Hill and in the Journal Square-area, including Canco Lofts.
The field inspectors are trained to look for anything that might affect or determine the property’s value on the real estate market. Specifically, the inspectors measure square footage, count the number of rooms in the home, and look at other features, including the type of heating system, whether there is centralized air conditioning or a fireplace, or whether the property has a patio or deck.
Heights homeowners report mixed experiences
Homeowners in the Heights have reported mixed experiences with the reval process.
On one end of the spectrum, some of those interviewed said they were mailed notifications last summer from the city, informing them of the upcoming reval. Several of these residents said the inspections of their homes went smoothly and were handled professionally. But others said their homes received only cursory inspections. Meanwhile, other property owners report that they haven’t even been notified of the reval – months after inspectors began canvassing their neighborhood.
“I live on Summit. I do know people in my neighborhood who got the [reval] notices. But I never got one,” said Heights homeowners Jenny O’Connell. “My next door neighbors didn’t get anything either. But I know they’re still out there doing inspections.”
Duda acknowledged that some homeowners, even in the Heights and Greenville, have not been notified of the reval because the city has not yet supplied Realty Appraisal Co. with up-to-date tax maps for the city.
“The city’s last tax map was done about four years ago,” said Duda. “But sometimes lots merge or somebody makes a subdivision. So there are areas of the city where the tax map is no longer accurate. We need those property lots to be identified correctly before we can inspect those areas. We’re inspecting where we can inspect right now. We’ll go back to sections that have to be updated.”
According to Jersey City Tax Assessor Ed Toloza, another contractor is currently updating the tax map.
Cate Reilly, a homeowner in the Heights, said her husband received a notice about the reval last fall, “and some inspectors came by. They came in, looked around and asked some questions about our house. I wasn’t home when they came by. But I got the impression they were there for about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. They had some kind of checklist. I don’t know what this will mean for our taxes, but my husband didn’t feel like they were fishing for something that wasn’t there.”
Their home, which Reilly’s husband inherited from his parents, is “old and worn,” she said. She said the inspector did not appear to add artificial value to their home.
But two homeowners – Bill and Mary Denton – said inspectors did not enter their homes, preferring instead to “inspect from the doorway,” as Mary Denton put it.
“That’s disturbing,” said Duda. “That’s not the kind of inspector I want doing my inspections. That’s not proper.”
Duda noted that property owners are not legally required to give the inspectors access to their properties. However, he said, “We highly encourage all property owners to permit an inspection, because the inspection will allow us to more accurately appraise their property.”
Still, he said the company estimates there will be “about a 10 percent refusal rate.” In those cases the company has to make an estimate regarding the size and condition of the property based on comparable properties in their neighborhood.
Residents who have questions regarding the revaluation process can call the city’s reval hotline at (201) 547-4538. Realty Appraisal Co. also has a “Homeowners FAQ” page on its web site, which can be accessed by visiting http://www.realtyappraisal.net.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.