New Jersey property taxes are the highest in the nation despite the fact that median household incomes continue to fall across the state.
Middlesex County is front and center as New Jersey continues to wrestle with outrageous property taxes.
If you live in a typical Middlesex County city like Metuchen, there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight for you.
For starters, Middlesex County residents pay an average annual property tax bill of $6,353 per year. That amounts to a staggering 6.85% of your income!
Counties and cities across the state are struggling with wasteful spending, corruption, and an ongoing battle with unions to cap wages and pensions at more reasonable levels.
With this as a background, a major study undertaken by a leading newspaper in the state has found that unfair property tax valuations and inaccuracies cost New Jersey property owners $1.6 billion.
New Jersey property owners face an appeal system that is stacked against them and one that can require years of expensive legal fees and delays just to be treated fairly by the property tax system. Some New Jersey taxpayers who get bogged down in this process end up recovering less money than it costs to appeal their assessment values.
The study found that New Jersey residents are overpaying on average an additional $1,043 in taxes each year due to inaccurate property valuations. As home values have plummeted over the past two years, property tax assessments have not dropped along with those values. Tax Court judges and county tax boards have been swamped with property tax appeals by homeowners and now have a backlog of more than 31,000 cases.
One couple living in Metuchen, Middlesex County in a 1,532 square foot condominium, have been dealing with annual increases in their property tax bill of $400-$600 per year through 2009 when their tax bill peaked at $11,100! That’s an outrageous property tax bill for a 1,532 square foot condominium!
This couple participated in a lawsuit that helped reduce their annual property tax bill to $9,800. That’s still a ridiculously high bill on a condo that is valued at only $198,100. Using similar tax rates, you could pay almost $2,500 per year in property taxes on a $50,000 mobile home in Metuchen!
Middlesex County is one of many counties in New Jersey with outrageous property taxes. If your home assessment is off by even a small amount, you could be among the group of homeowners paying $1,043 more in annual property taxes than you should. Let someone else pay for all of this waste and inefficiency. Save on legal fees and use ValueAppeal to appeal the assessed value of your Middlesex County home.
