CAPE MAY – City Manager Paul Dietrich says he expects the county tax board to order a citywide revaluation of property in the next year.
Dietrich’s remarks came at the City Council’s Tuesday, July 2, meeting as he explained the need for creating new, updated digital tax maps required when a revaluation is ordered.
The council gave final approval to an ordinance allocating up to $250,000 for the task of creating the maps. The city’s intended move from paper maps to digital maps adds complexity to the task, Dietrich explained.
The objective of a revaluation is to bring all property assessments in line with their true market value. The revaluation aims to ensure a fair and equitable assignment of property taxes.
The county equalization tables for Cape May City for 2024 show a misalignment between assessed values and calculated true values for property, with a ratio of assessed to true value of 62.3%.
The current aggregated assessed value of property in the city is $3 billion, while the tax tables show estimated true value at $4.8 billion. The frenzied real estate market across the county during and following the pandemic contributed to widespread problems with the assessed to true-value ratio.
Most of the municipalities in the county are showing similar misalignment between assessed and true value of property. Many face the same probability of imminent revaluations.
The situation becomes more complicated because there are a limited number of companies in the state certified to perform such work, a factor that would influence exactly when and in what order municipalities might tackle revaluation.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.