Assessments Fall Further Behind Rising Stone Harbor Real Estate Market

STONE HARBOR – The borough’s tax assessor, Margaret Slavin, told the borough council Oct. 7 that tax assessments continue to fall behind the rising value of real estate in the community. 
According to Slavin, the borough is approximately 37% under-assessed. The ratio of assessed value to true value for 2023 is 66.62%, down from 80.88%.
Normally, this kind of change would necessitate a borough-wide revaluation. But Slavin indicated that the county tax board is not yet ready to recommend one. 
“They do not want to be chasing this market,” she said. Slavin added that she has never seen this kind of steady increase in property values in her career. “We keep expecting a market adjustment, but no one knows when that will happen.”
One impact that Stone Harbor taxpayers should prepare for is a larger share of the county tax burden. This year, a number of taxpayers complained that their county tax went up even though the county tax rate has held steady. 
As the Herald explained in an August article, the county tax levy is apportioned to the 16 municipalities based on a formula that factors the value of annual real estate sales and the number of those sales. A hot market like that in Stone Harbor will mean a larger share of the county tax levy. 
The problem of an under-assessed municipality is not unique to Stone Harbor. Almost all of the county municipalities are in a range where their assessed-to-true value ratio would indicate the need for a reassessment. 
Many are not as under-assessed as Stone Harbor, but a round of reassessments is probably not far in the future, provided the frenzy in the market abates to allow for such an effort.