Just got my property tax bill

The condo managing agent does it for the whole building. You can technically break out your unit from the rest of the condo and appeal for your apartment alone but you are unlikely to find a certiorari attorney to represent you.

You are likely facing an issue that that market value increases based on rental eqt are being phased in over time. Look at the last page of your tax statement. It will tell you what your implied rent is and if it is below the real rental rate, you are unlikely to get much relief. If it is higher than what you think is reasonable market, your building may have a good case for reduction. The max monthly tax should be 25-30% of the rent as per the current tax rates.

You have seen my posts by uncontrolled expense increases by the city and lot of people getting freebies (subsidized housing, poor door etc) who do not pay the property taxes a non-subsidized tax payer will pay. The property tax increases are a direct result of those type of policies and generous pensions which have been years in the making and current administration has just worsened it.

For example this one can not get relief as sq ft is 1200 and rent eqt is $5196 on page of the following. Roughly market rent or a little below it. The property taxes will go up another 20% as the "Transitional assessed value" needs to increase by this amount to be equal to "Actual Assessed Value".

http://nycprop.nyc.gov/nycproperty/StatementSearch?bbl=1010471243&stmtDate=20180115&stmtType=NPV

Thanks, 300. I read the back of my notice and see the market rent estimate which I think is at least a little on the high side. But if I understand you, it seems unlikely that I would be successful on my own. I should contact the condo board and ask what they plan to do.

I understand what you are saying about increases in property taxes in general but any adjustments to pay for social welfare causes should be done by adjusting the tax rate not the assessment which is supposed to be based on market evidence only. A 24% year-over-year increase in market value for my apt. is nonsensical.

Condo and coop rent is coverted using cap rate to market value by the city. City has large leeway in choosing what properties get included in market rent calculation and cap rates. They can not adjust the tax rate upwards as I believe it is statewide. They just adjust the other two to find revenue for uncontrollled spending. And a big chunk of spending is not going to schools. Of course, politicians use that as a scare tactic - school funding will have to be cut if the taxes do not go up rather than freebies to get votes.

As 300_Mercer says, these numbers are manipulated to achieve higher taxes (especially on Manhattan condos, as taxes are calculated entirely differently on 1-3 families (i.e., most properties outside Manhattan)), and done so with no attachment to reality. Here is the historical "market value" NYC calculated for a Union Square condo. The value changes are all over the map. Over the period listed, taxes went up from $6200 to over $18000. Since 2010, the implied rent NYC reported for this unit has doubled.

2018/19 429,328(TENTATIVE)
2017/18 422,900
2016/17 395,201
2015/16 386,786
2014/15 364,190
2013/14 345,504
2012/13 377,807
2011/12 251,872
2010/11 219,998
2009/10 246,504
2008/09 167,649
2007/08 164,998
2006/07 144,456

Great example. Of course, the city will say that they were undercharging before.

Thanks all. I kinda know that the city will do whatever they can to maximize revenues. But not sure how far they can legally. Does anyone have experience with an appeal, either for their unit or for entire condo/coop building? And what would be the basis for the appeal? Rental values?

It's a game - the city expects everyone to do Tax Certiorari every year, so they set the assessment as high as possible, it gets reduced on appeal and then the next year it starts over again.

Yes. Rental values for coop and condos. I think by now, many condos are reaching rent assumptions that future increases will be limited. Manhattan Coops still have at least 25% to go in the 10-15 coops sample size I looked at as their transitional assessed values are lower than city assessed market value. Of course, the city can change the cap rate assumption used to go from rental value to assessed value by 50 bps and still get an increase.

One of the market price drops in the chart above (I think 2013-14) was the result of a successful tax challenge by our building, but it had little impact on future taxes (we did get a small rebate of some past taxes). As 300_mercer points out, if your current market value is materially higher than the "transitional" value reported by the city, there is effectively a built-in future increase in the tax amount because the "market value" increases are phased in over (I believe) 5 years (which is a bit of a misnomer in a rising market where there is a multiyear backlog of taxable value increases, so there is little or no phasing).

Does anyone know of a comprehensive resource to learn more about how the residential real estate tax rules work in Manhattan, and how they would be impacted if the "taxequitynow" folks were to prevail??

When the NYS legislature in 1981 passed S7000A overriding the veto of then Gov. Hugh Carey, they created a Frankenstein’s monster that may be difficult to impossible to destroy. Purely political in nature, the political will to reform this unfair tax system does not appear to exist yet.

nyc.gov does a decent job of explaining how it works:
http://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/property-assessments.page

Additional info:

Recent article from 2017:
https://citylimits.org/2017/10/03/policy-brief-nycs-looming-task-of-property-tax-reform/

A discussion of history and alternatives from 2006:
http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/propertytax120506.pdf

Some interesting academic and think tank stuff:
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/jyinger/classes/PAI735/studentpapers/2006/Sullivan.pdf
http://furmancenter.org/files/publications/Distribution_of_the_Burden_of_New_York_Citys_Property_Tax_11.pdf

Really helpful stuff. Thank you.

Ximon, Thank you for the links. I like Furman center article a lot. While I know the current calcs, this gives history of how the current system came about. Also IBO link even though I just saved it to read later in more details.

Glad some of you found it helpful. One of my first jobs after college was working in the assessment bureau office in Manhattan, back when tax assessors took a lot of pride in their work. Later, changes in laws and regulations dummied it down to the point where it all became formulaic. But I am out of touch now with how the system works so enjoyed reading up on things again.

Interesting that these regs came about as a result of a 1975 court case claiming inequality in how properties were taxed. Today, it's worse than ever and I wonder why no court has ruled the current system unconstitutional. Real estate taxes are often called "ad valorum" taxes which means as per value.

I wonder if you knew my dad (Herb Goldsmith).