By the end of the year, median prices in the U.S. are expected to be up 12%, according to a report last week from Realtor.com. Eventually that will lead to higher property appraisals and therefore an increase in property tax bills. But that change may not be immediate.
“It depends on where you live as to when those changes in property values that we are seeing take place,” said Marc Pfeiffer, senior policy fellow and assistant director at the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
For instance, in the Garden State, some municipalities conduct annual reassessments, while others divide their jurisdiction into regions and reassesses one area per year for a few years. So, if a city is broken up by the assessor into three districts, each will be reassessed once every three years. Still other municipalities in New Jersey may wait five to seven years and have the whole municipality reevaluated at the same time, according to Mr. Pfeiffer.
In that case, it could be years before a homeowner sees the result of rising property values on their tax bill, he noted.