I received this message:
Your attitude towards the sections of White Plains that pay the lions share of the taxes that support the downtown infrastructure in nothing short of abysmal. The whole blog reeks of misplaced resentment. I might have been sympathetic until I read the bulk of your posts - by the time I was done the steam was coming out of my ears. My taxes have tripled thanks to all the downtown development and you guys want MORE. Pay for it yourselves and carry your own water for a change. The downtown is a huge drain on the suburban end financially.
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Response:
I checked the city web site tax records and found two people with the last name Hicks. One lives in a house. The other in a two bed, two bath condo. Their taxes (school, city, county):
house: $7,680.36
apartment: $6,684.54
Only $1,000 more for an entire house. With private outdoor space. Probably a private garage.
On my physical block there are about 300 apartment homes. How much is spent by the city to maintain, let's say, the public streets? We'll call them four blocks, even though two are short.
How many blocks of houses would comprise 300 houses and what is the cost to the city? That money is not reflected in individual property tax.
In my complex of 282 homes, there are 70 children, including toddlers. How many children would live in 282 houses and what's the school tax distribution per adult?
Oh, and my individual apartment has meters for water, which I pay as an individual.
Finally, whatever subsidies were given by the city were given to the developers, not to apartment residents.
The house owners who think that their taxes are too high should simply move to Scarsdale.
In which of the CNA groups does the resentful house owner live? How many homes are represented by that entity? How many people?
2 comments:
Know your facts before you blog. Understand the ISSUE before you blog. First, I am using taxes from the MLS. They don't include STAR but I need apples to apples comparisons to make my point.
My taxes - $8849
Taxes of the condo you mention - $7909
So - my taxes are 10.6% higher. Now the problem...My home is worth roughly 18% LESS than that condo.
2 BR homes are currently worth less than most 2 BR condos. And I'm being generous about the value of my home. It is probably worth less than I am reporting. So if taxes reflect the value of property - and they should - my taxes should be roughly $6,490 - or near 27% less.
But it gets worse because that condo complex does not have a sweetheart deal with our city. Let's take a low end unit at the Ritz. One recent sale at $545k has a 2009 tax (like the others) a bit south of $3700. That's INSANE.
Since the condo you mentioned would is paying $7909 and is somewhat south of $500k in value. It is obvious that the condos downtown are grossly undertaxed. Let's not even discuss that my home is worth more than $100k less than the Ritz unit yet I shell out over 100% MORE!!
Want another comparison???
Two sales around the same time.
Ritz unit sells for $996k - taxes $7895
Rosedale home sells for $960k - taxes $21,753!!!
Once again - that's INSANE. That's nearly a 200% difference. The fact is that comparable homes in SF neighborhoods are being taxed way too high when compared with high end downtown.
Let's not even discuss that my well under $500k home is being taxed MORE than a near $1 million condo!
So we have two issues:
1. Condos and coops are GENERALLY under-taxed when compared to SF homes. Hence the discrepancy between my home and the condo you mentioned.
2. Some condos that were supposed to BRING in revenue are not pulling their weight and won't for years to come because of sweetheart deals with the former administration.
So yes, we are carrying the water for the downtown. Worse still, our services have gone downhill. In an emergency the downtown gets all the help and the residential areas can sit and rot. You didn't address the issues of raw sewage in homes that was due to neglect of residential infrastructure and flooding due to paving over so much of the downtown. It all comes south - into OUR basements. We too have had traffic deaths - it is not unique to the downtown I PROMISE you. And no - we haven't gotten that traffic light we've been asking for either.
As far as home values go - we aren't that far from Scarsdale taxation levels. I grabbed a recent sale in Scarsdale and went according to sales price. The taxes of a $970k home in Scarsdale were $22,356 or $603 more than the White Plains comp I mentioned before....making your comparison with Scarsdale moot.
That brings us to problem 3...
We are NOT Scarsdale and SF homes in this area can not support more tax increases without taking another hit in value. We are more like Sleepy Hollow in that respect. Sleepy Hollow has have had severe downward pressure on housing prices due to high taxes. Soooo - the next wave a tax increases will decrease home values which will cause SF homeowners to grieve taxes. Their assessed values will be lowered decreasing the tax base yet AGAIN.
No running away from this - SF homeowners got screwed.
1. I took two properties almost randomly: yours and that of someone who happens to have the same last name.
2. you took the most expensive and newest condo complex, the Ritz, and
then generalized into ALL condos being undertaxed compared to houses.
3. You ignored my two examples of apartment dwellers using considerably less city resources:
- roads
- SCHOOLS (the BIG one).
Schools:
They take the biggest chunk of WP tax. Figure out that tax bite per adult house v. apartment dwellers.
Does any bordering municipality have house tax lower than WP? If so, move there and be done with downtown WP.
It is no secret that municipalities, including White Plains, add new housing aimed at those who are unlikely to add many students to the school system. The municipality wants those tax dollars but does not want to devote comparable services. It protects its existing base, treating new residents as second class citizens. It's astonishing that someone in real estate either does not know this or chooses to ignore it.
Part of the reason taxes increased was to pay for the new public
school that White Plains just opened on post road, which was needed because of the influx of illegal aliens, an issue that everyone is afraid to address.
So, which of those neighborhood associations with influence way out of proportion to its population do you belong to? How many houses are in it? How many residents: adult and school age?
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