It’s been speculated for the past few years that the Jersey City real estate scene would be seeing on a city wide scale its Revaluation. Well the time has come. Mayor Healy in all his wisdom has notified the Hudson County Board of Taxation that the City intends to begin the 18 month process of conducting a property revaluation, a decision the Board intends to support.

Let’s take a look at exactly what the Jersey City real estate property Revaluation is…..

What Is A Revaluation?

A revaluation is when a municipality appraises all real property within the municipality, according to its full and fair value. Full and fair value simply means current real estate market prices, or what that particular piece of property, in that condition, in that specific neighborhood, would currently sell for between a willing seller and a willing buyer.

A revaluation will appraise each property based on its current market value and, as a result, each property’s taxes will be based on that current market value. Cities undertake property revaluations periodically to update housing valuations for the purpose of attaining uniformity in assessments.

This will serve as the first Revaluation, also known as a city wide "property assessment" done on such a scale since 1988.

This has obviously been a long time coming, but given the economic conditions of many of the city’s residents, many may question the timing. Obviously with the recent tax increases and lay-offs of city employee’s the city is strapped which points to wanting to raise revenue derived from Jersey City real estate property taxes or as the city calls it, "The purpose of this revaluation is to ensure a fair and equitable redistribution of the City’s tax levy so all property owners are shouldering their fair share of the City’s tax burden. The City of Jersey City website also states "Now is the best time to do a property reevaluation because property values are at their lowest.

Over the last 22 years, Jersey City has undergone a tremendous growth in both residential and commercial properties. During the 2000s, like most of the country, we saw real estate prices escalating far beyond their reasonable worth. Since the near collapse of the global economic financial system in October of 2008, we’ve seen Jersey City inundated with a substantial number of underwater mortgages and short sales.

I don’t know about you, but last time I checked, the Reval was done in’88? It sounds like someone is trying to calm the upcoming storm.Much has changed since the last Revaluation, property values are significantly higher, infrastructure has been approved along with the public transportation systems which will all be taken into account when the Jersey City Revaluation is conducted.

This is how the City of Jersey City see’s the Revaluation in terms of assessing properties…

"During those 22 years many changes in the real estate market have taken place—new housing and commercial properties have been constructed while older, dilapidated structures have been torn down, rehabilitated or replaced. Prices have fluctuated. Houses which appear exactly the same from the street may be drastically different inside due to renovation, repairs, deterioration or lack of maintenance, the addition or removal of a rental unit, or a change of property class from residential to commercial.

When you compare the current true market value to the assessed market value (set in 1988) of many properties across the city, you can see that they are dramatically skewed and out of line with the average assessed market value of city properties as a whole.

This means that instead of each property paying its fair share of city taxes based on its assessed value (which should be an accurate reflection of each property’s value in today’s real estate market), many properties are under assessed and are therefore under paying property taxes.

When Revaluations are conducted most expect their property taxes to increase, however this is not always the case. The City is stating that often 1/3 of the municipal properties will see their share of the tax burden go down, 1/3 will see their share of the tax burden go up, and 1/3 of assessed municipal properties will see no change at all.

I know I am not alone in the thinking that this is going to be hard to believe this go around. Especially in the Downtown Jersey City area, which in 1988 was a different world.