Brooklyn Brownstoners Pay Lowest Property Taxes
Homeowners in Brownstone Brooklyn can find plenty of things to gripe about, but property taxes ain’t one of them. Along with members of other affluent neighborhoods around the city, Brooklyn brownstoners benefit from assessment caps that have kept taxes low while real estate prices have skyrocketed. A recent study by the city’s Independent Budget Office…
Homeowners in Brownstone Brooklyn can find plenty of things to gripe about, but property taxes ain’t one of them. Along with members of other affluent neighborhoods around the city, Brooklyn brownstoners benefit from assessment caps that have kept taxes low while real estate prices have skyrocketed. A recent study by the city’s Independent Budget Office found that owners of houses in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens have the lowest effective tax rate in the five boroughs. While one-, two- and three-family homes account for 41 percent of the market value of all city property, they generate less than 14 percent of property tax revenues. Rental buildings, on the other hand, get hit much harder than houses, co-ops or condos. When we renovated our house, the property taxes doubled from about $2,400 to about $4,800, or about $1 per square foot per year. How does that compare to what you’re paying?
Tax Breaks Seem to Favor Affluent Areas [NY Times]
Large Share of Property Taxes Borne by Rentals [NY Sun]
Photo from Dahl’s House
11:48am Great idea – I’m all for it –
only thing is you need the State Legistature to go along as well – and again despite Brownstone Brooklyn’s near universal condemnation of 421a – the outrage of rich people paying low property taxes does seem to translate when we are talking about to those “middle class” 1,2 & 3 million dollar brownstone owners
Aren’t there people out there who have made improvements to their homes without filing it with the DOB? If you’re not changing the CofO, what is your incentive to file?
I have @ 2250 sf in a 3-story, Park Slope between 4th and 5th Avenues. I’m guessing it’s worth $1.1 or $1.2M market? We pay something like $2500/yr before the rebate.
On the one hand, it’s totally unfair and goes against my sense of social justice. On the other hand, BWAHhahahahahahahaha!!!
Seriously, what about changing the law so that the taxes get readjusted based on the full market values when the house is sold? That would avoid screwing the poor old guy who’s lived in his house for 50 years, but it properly taxes the new owner of said house when he buys it for $2M–if the guy can afford a $2M house, he’s got no kick coming.
Yes, that would probably lower the sales price of the house, but for said 50-year owner, that’s a couple hundred thou off of a million-plus windfall, and more equitable for all.
Not all neighborhoods with brownstones enjoy such low taxes. Many residents of my neighborhood always assumed racism and patronage helped out the taxpayers of generations ago in areas like Park Slope and Carroll Gardens and now those low rates are a fixture in those neighborhoods.
Gotta love all the hypocrites who think
brownstoners are entitled to permanent low taxes but condo/coop owners should not even have temporary low taxes, even if it means the housing market will be negatively impacted and middle class families will be forced to leave.
Fact is that condo/coop owners tend to have lower incomes than brownstoners. Most of these abatements are in middle-class immigrant-heavy places like Sheepshead Bay and Bensonhurst, while brownstoners are obviously in wealthy nabes close to Manhattan.
Even crazier is the brownstoner logic. Schools in NYC are primarily funded by commerical taxes, while in most suburbs lack of a large commerical base means that schools are funded by residential taxes. You aren’t entitled to pay less in taxes because of schools and even if you were, you do not pay for your own special, brownstoner-only district.
Frankly, the ENTIRE property tax structure in NYC needs to be rethought. I am a new condo owner, and I take advantage of 421A – and I am by no means wealthy. Still, when my abatement ends in 8 years, my property taxes will be FOUR TIMES HIGHER than the taxes on the 1.5 million dollar brownstones on my block. I would ave loved to buy a brownstone, but as a first-time buyer had to start smaller. But I am not about to cry when brownstone owners ultimately pay markedly less than apartment owners in taxes yet partake in the same city services, be they great or terrible….
And 10:47 had your taxes been higher then most likely the purchase price would have been lower; so just like w/ 421a; the City/States tax code has the ‘masses’ subsidizing the gains of the few. Only difference here is that in 10yrs, had you bought a 421a condo your taxes could easily double or triple but brownstone owners will get the benefit of lower taxes virtually indefinitly b/c of state law.
Ditto on the “wealthy” comment above. The cost to maintain a 120 year old house which has just emerged from slum property category (due to my efforts) is amazing. On top of these maintenance costs, I got the 6% tax increase this year and higher energy prices.
When I bought the place two years ago, I inherited a nice young couple as tenants who were paying a low rent. I gave them a modest increase when I bought the building with a 2 year lease. The lease expired and I asked them for an increase with their lease renewal and they were shocked.
Just because I was able to get financing for this place to buy it and fix it and because I have lower comparable taxes doesn’t make me wealthy. I cannot absorb further costs without passing them on to tenants. Because these people put up with renovation, I agreed to a miniscule increase this time, but higher costs, including higher real estate taxes will inevitably result in higher rents. It will for my house anyway.
Hi – Wanted to share our scenario: We payed just over 1.5M for our brownstone, and our taxes are about $1,000 per year for a two family in Prospect Heights. Thank goodness, because with our mortgage debt, we could not have afforded significant taxes.