Question about property tax increases

[Marek Los]

Hi!  So I bought my first house a year ago, and everything was going really well up until I received this years property tax assessment.  For some reason, the "improvement" part of it nearly doubled, and as a result my taxes have basically doubled from 2021 till 2022.  I don't know if perhaps because the owner changed they did a new assessment of the property, but I was expecting a mild increase from one year to another, nothing like this.  I am located in the Trenton NJ area, does anyone have any advise?  I haven't improved or changed anything on the property so I'm not sure why the improvement $$ would go up so much.  

[Lance Trezona]

Hi @Marek Los, sometimes it is the tax assessors department that is lagging after the purchase of your property. Usually, your property tax will be assessed after the purchase, and it will be based on the selling price when you bought it, (a quick google search shows that in your state it's 2.42%) then you will see your increase.  I am not sure if it's the pandemic or something else, but it seems like all Assessors are behind, I have not gotten by new property tax yet, but know that I will have a supplemental tax bill next year because my Mortgage company has based my taxes off of old data. I am still paying the tax amount that the previous owner was paying, so I know that I will have to cough up 4500 extra based on the selling price that I purchased it for. Hope this has been helpful. Have a great day!