When You Challenge Property Taxes, Check Your Mail
How you can alleviate the burden of rising property taxes
U.S. homeowners are paying almost 30% more in property taxes than they did in 2019. My wife and I are no exception.
When we bought our house in 2020, our property taxes were less than $14,000. Today, they’re upwards of $18,000. Following our latest tax assessment, it’ll go up again. This for a modest 1,500-square-foot home. Granted, we live in a nice neighborhood in Westchester County, New York, which boasts an excellent school district and proximity to the city. Still, the taxes seemed excessive for our little ranch, so we looked into ways to alleviate our tax burden.
property tax relief programs
Our realtor told us about the New York School Tax Relief Program (STAR), which offers property tax relief via two tracks — Basic STAR (a baseline $290 tax reduction) and Enhanced STAR (a baseline $650 tax reduction). Eligibility requirements can be found here.
It’s important to note that the relief is contingent on the school district. As such, relief can vary widely, just like property taxes. In our county, for example, the savings can be as much as $5,000. Unfortunately, my wife and I didn’t meet all the requirements, but any homeowner looking for relief should look into similar programs, given that most states have some form of property tax relief or homestead exemption.
challenging property taxes
Our tax assessed value, which is a major determinant for one’s property taxes, has climbed relentlessly in the last several years: $565,000 in 2021, $621,000 in 2022, $678,000 in 2023, and—drumroll please—$776,000 in 2024. That last jarring figure compelled my wife to do some digging. She discovered that we could challenge our tax assessment.
There’s a small window—a week in the summer, if I remember correctly—during which you can file a “Complaint of Real Property Assessment” in our area. We filled out the required forms and compiled a list of comparable properties in the neighborhood to be submitted as supporting evidence. I marched over to the Board of Assessment Review of the Town of Greenburgh, where they informed me that we would receive a determination from the board “in the fall.”
CUT TO: “The Board of Assessment Review of the Town of Greenburgh has denied your Complaint of Real Property Assessment. The information and/or data provided does not satisfy your burden of proving the assessment to be inaccurate.”
We were going to appeal, but we missed the deadline to file a petition for judicial review: October 16. I called to inquire about the assessment after the deadline (unbeknownst to me at the time), during which I was informed of the outcome of the assessment and the lapsed deadline to appeal. The clerical worker on the phone told me they had sent a letter. I’m sure they did, but we never received it. Maybe we misplaced it, or maybe it was lost in the mail. It doesn’t matter. We missed our chance. Better luck next year.
Apparently, this is pretty common. There are threads online populated with homeowners who confirm that the initial complaint is invariably rejected. It’s during the appeal that you may get a favorable result. Many recommended engaging a lawyer for this part of the process, which we intended to do, but, as you know, we missed the window.
I think the part that bothers me most is that they could easily send a digital copy. When I asked the clerical worker at the town why they didn’t send an email copy at the same time, she told me it was policy to send only by mail. I asked if she could send a copy for my records by email, which she obliged within a minute while I was still on the phone, proving they can easily supplement snail mail with email. This leads me to believe they’re counting on the fact that many homeowners won’t see the mail in time to appeal.
smallest house in the best town
When my wife and I first embarked on the house hunt, my sister, a longtime homeowner, shared the following advice:
“It’s better to have the smallest house in the best neighborhood than the biggest house in the worst neighborhood.”
In general, this is sound advice, but as the co-owner of one of the smallest houses in our neighborhood, I’ve learned that there is a caveat that should accompany this precept.
greater burden on smaller houses
Property taxes often form a larger percentage of the market value of a smaller house than a larger, more expensive home. Anecdotally, I’ve observed that to be true in our neighborhood. In other words, if you’re planning to buy a modest house in an affluent neighborhood, make sure not to overextend yourself, as the escalating property taxes can stack up quickly, soon becoming a burden.
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