NYC Assessed Value

This is just window dressing for a public that is being fleeced and a diversion for public entities (the MTA and the Empire State Development Corporation) to hide behind while they abdicate their fiduciary responsibilities. The naming rights for the subway station is chump change compared to the value the MTA is conferring on Forest City Ratner in land rights. Barclays is aiding and abetting the looting of the public coffers by Forest City Ratner in their failed promise of Atlantic Yards.

Posted by: kensch at June 24, 2009 2:57 PM in response to More Naming Rights for Barclay's

I have panels installed and they cover my needs over the course of a year. We have 4 a story brownstone but power just us our triplex. We have a 6.6kW install net metered. It takes up a good chunk of our 20 x 45ft (15x30?—roughly) roof. Go to the NYSERDA website http://www.powernaturally.org
They list installers, outline incentives, allow you to estimate what your needs are. You have to use their approved installers in order to qualify for the incentives. I couldn't say enough good things about our installer—but I'm pretty sure they're not doing residential installations anymore (who knows with the downturn though). Solar Energy Systems. Great guys, talk to Chris Moustakis the owner. All you need is a site study to make sure it is feasible for your site (no trees or buildings blocking light). The contractor should take care of the rest (design, permits, construction, etc.). The build isn't complex: roofing work took 2-3 days, solar panels up in a day, electrical work a day and a half. Just 4-5 months of permiting and a parade of inspectors (dept of bldgs, underwriters lab, con ed, etc.), but the contractor took care of it all, including landmarks (we have our panels set back so you don't see them from the street).

With incentives and rebates we've found it to be quite a deal and don't know why it isn't done more often. We've been up and running for about a year and a half. Everyone talks about simple payback calculations, but here is something nobody talks about: every time Con Ed raises rates, payback is that much faster. 15% increase? Payback on the investment is 15% faster. You lock in the costs when you install and rate increases go to you with the net metering. We took a loan out to cover some of the cost and NYSERDA paid most the interest and the payback on the 5 year loan on a monthly basis is only a little more than what we would have been paying to con ed anyway (with the recent rate hikes), so we feel like the 5 years that it takes to pay the loan is kind of like we would have been paying it anyhow. Other than that (after state and federal tax rebates) we only had to drop about $12k on a $63k system. Payback on that? 4-5 years, I'd say (but remember I'm not counting the 5 year, $20k loan in that so it'll be 4-5 years after the loan is paid). After that it's all free juice (still have to pay con ed about $14/mo for "service" though).

Hope that doesn't make it sound complicated, because it really isn't. Federal tax rebates have increased since we jumped in, but so has contracting costs, I believe.

And you'll actually be doing something to reduce your carbon footprint, and take some of the load off the grid when it is most needed during those hot summer days.

Posted by: kensch at April 4, 2009 12:48 AM in response to flat roof for solar panels

I wonder. My brownstone was just assessed at $1.5M and the brownstone down the street can't sell at $1.9. It is getting close--as in previous years (I've been in my brownstone now for 10 years and the assessed price is as one should expect, way way up) the percent spread between assessed and actual always seemed to lag significantly. Now they are so much closer to par in my opinion, with the market continuing to soften.

A 7% increase in RE taxes isn't something to just blow off. Assessments going up, up, up and tax rates going up in combination seems like a compounded increase in deflationary times. Not great. Seems like a back door for keeping revenue up for the city.

That said I do appreciate my city services...

Posted by: kensch at January 2, 2009 8:59 AM in response to NYC Assessed Value

We had a service contract for 10 years with National Grid and their former self Keyspan (or was it Brooklyn Gas?). Anyway. My advice. They are shit. Stay away. Recently had a problem for the first time and called them. Their hold lines are the worst and expect to wait because their scheduling is even worse than that. It'll be at least two days before they show in the winter and be prepared: that will just be for the first "assessment" visit. They schedule in 6 hour windows. But don't expect them to show in that time frame, because they many times don't and they lie about it saying "they've called" or "no one was home when we came by." Their workers are surly and put off to the next worker (and shift that you will have to schedule) any work they get towards the end of a shift. My experience with them bordered on criminal. It took me over a week for them to do a half hour of work while the whole time they implied that 1. you should start to think of a new boiler and 2. their concern is your safety. Baloney. Implying a nondescript smell was a hazard I asked them to measure for gas they told me they don't carry that kind of equipment with them. And not even a carbon monoxide detector (a deadly and odorless gas, which can be a byproduct of a malfunctioning boiler or furnace improperly burning fuel)! They are running a scam. Supervisors can take up to a week to call back (in our case they did so only after we went above their head). Stay away. They run it like a monopoly, but they aren't. Go to an independent contractor. I'm in the process of looking for one myself now. Any experience (with a qualified boiler company) would be superior to dealing with them. Worst contractor experience I've had in my life! They kept my tenant and my family in the cold unnecessarily for over a week. Bastards.

Posted by: kensch at November 28, 2008 3:41 PM in response to Boiler service

I bike almost daily from Ft. Greene over the Brooklyn Bridge with my daughter to take her to school in lower Manhattan. Downtown Brooklyn is horrific to bike through. We take DeKalb to Flatbush and then the bike lane ends. From there to the Brooklyn Bridge is a free for all. Unconscionable!

From DekKalb we weave our way to Wiloughby where we get trapped either by construction on Willoughby or have to weave our way through planters blocking our way to get through to cross Metrotech (thanks for the ineffectual anti-terrorist planters good neighbor Ratner!), finally making our way to Adams.

Put a bike lane on Wiloughby or better yet through Metrotech. Reinstate the bike lane at that absurd plaza on Adams and Wiloughby! The most frustrating irony and insult are those bike "sculptures" blocking a real bike lane at Adams and Willoughby.

Posted by: kensch at July 22, 2008 12:11 PM in response to Checking In On the Adams Street Bike Lane

One to two family houses have a cap of 6%/year, 20% over five years. The assessed values were set in 1981, and were closer to the market value at the time; market values were assigned at that point because the state forced the city to do so, to conform to the way the rest of the state does it. Newer properties, condos or changes in C of O get assessed at the purchase price, generally, and then fall under the cap. The reason they keep raising the tax rate is that it is politically the easier way to raise taxes across the board; truth is that most NYC houses are undertaxed, but some are way over taxed; it is very unfair. This recent hike will actually be more like 13% next fiscal year because of the the 6% + the 7%; check it out when you get the new tax statement in March. I also wondered about how the slump could factor into tax protests, though, especially for people who are over taxed. If you really want to get the stats, check out NYPIRG's study of about 5 years ago. Gene Russianoff has been arguing for a reform of the system for fairness for some time.

Posted by: eFortGreene at January 3, 2009 9:41 PM in response to NYC Assessed Value

For my (PPS / Ditmas Park area) house, the "estimated market value" is $1.25 million. Less than what houses on the block sold for in '06, and I'd say a little over the current actual market value.

The "Assessed Value" is about 30K and annual tax about $4800.

I have noticed that houses in Brownstone neighborhoods that are worth a lot more than my house pay less in taxes. Coops are undertaxed because the market value is determined by using rental properties as comps, rather than comparable sales of other coops.

Posted by: Bklnite at January 5, 2009 10:25 AM in response to NYC Assessed Value