From the Press of Atlantic City:
Higher property taxes, more for-sale signs in Villas
Bernie Pomykacz moved to the Villas section of the township in 1987 when he could no longer afford to live in Cape May.
Pomykacz, 74, a retiree living on Social Security and the few dollars he makes cutting lawns, missed his house on Madison Avenue in the seaside resort but quickly made the adjustment to living on the bayshore at his new home on Delaware Avenue. At least he was meeting his goal of being independent and not living with his children.“At one time, the Villas was a place for people like me,” Pomykacz said.
Those times may be coming to an end. Pomykacz bought his house for $67,000, but his new property assessment is $361,000. Now the house that he thought would be his last has a sale sign in the window.
More and more for sale signs are popping up along the bayshore since the property revaluation.
Pomykacz, who gets $1,200 per month from Social Security, and then has to pay about $125 per month for Medicare, isn’t sure yet where he is going. He just knows it won’t be anywhere in New Jersey, which has the highest property taxes in the nation.
“I’m going to go wherever the taxes are cheaper. I heard Delaware was better, so I went over there and looked around a bit,” Pomykacz said.
He didn’t like Delaware. He said it was too flat and had too much traffic, but at least the taxes would allow him to live there. In New Jersey, he feels it’s only a matter of time before he gets taxed out of his home. He’s on a fixed income, and there are only so many lawns he can mow. He’s getting older.
“There’s nobody watching the chicken coop and the fox is coming in too often,” Pomykacz said.
…
It may only be the beginning of a fire sale. Patrick Wall, an agent with Coastline Realty, said many thinking of selling haven’t listed yet. That is partly due to the northwest winds making it hard to sell a home on the bay this time of year and also because many homeowners are still fighting the revaluation company, the CLT Division, on the new values.“We’re still at the kicking and screaming stage. People are still going through the process with CLT,” Wall said.
He is not even sure if more homes are for sale due to the revaluation or if it is part of a larger trend.
“There are more properties for sale in Cape May County than there ever have been. There are a lot of people shopping, but everybody is waiting for what the bottom of the market will be,” Wall said.
boo hoo.
–first time home buyer
This is exactly the kind of person who can be priced out of NJ by taxes. Simply put, his income doesn’t support the cost of owning a home here, but as Mike so tearfully notes, his situation isn’t all that bad.
Even if he sells at $300K he’s made a very nice (tax free!) profit. He can go plenty of places with his bankroll and be quite comfortable for at least another decade. Of course he has to want to go to those places.
Of course if he can only get $200K for his place…
Frankly, it oughta be the law that if a locality wants to assess a property at a higher value, they have to offer to buy that property at that value. That is, if an oldster’s house is reassessed from $50k to $500k, the town has to offer to buy that house for $500k.
This means either assessing it at below market value more frequently or raising the rate that everyone pays (which is more honest at least).
And someone from NJ complaining about DE traffic congestion? That’s rich. I guess if you compare farmland NJ to New Castle Co. maybe, but south of the canal it’s farmland and rednex all the way down to the beaches….
About NJ traffic – wait till tonight/tomorrow morning….
Lets say he gets $300k. He can buy a nice condo down south for $100k. If he puts the other $200K in the bank at 5% interest, he can generate $10k per year in interest. This will be more than enough to cover property taxes and association fees, still have money left over, and never even touch the principle.
He is retired, so he doesn’t even need a “hot” area like Cary with access to good jobs. His Social Security check will also go farther down south. Add this to the interest on his next egg and he can probably have a pretty comfortable life.
Otis,
The problem is that, unless you cut spending, the tax bill will have to be redistributed over fewer people if you do this. It’s not like anyone in this state isn’t already paying more than enough in taxes. Who are you going to ask to make up the difference?
Otis,
The problem is that, unless you cut spending, the tax bill will have to be redistributed over fewer people if you do this. It’s not like anyone in this state isn’t already paying more than enough in taxes. Who are you going to ask to make up the difference?
We have heard the same argument from our neighbors at the shore about taxes. But at the same time when they sell they gush about how much money that they made.
Yes I feel for folks that feel taxes out, but they do have the choice to sell out and rent. There is excess capacity in the rental markets here.
The bigger question to me is why is the tax rate not declining as fast as the values are rising? One should offset the other. Plus, in the shore communities, new construction should push the rate even lower because there are more homeowners than a few years ago.
We all know why. NJ’s spending is out of control.
RentinginNJ, you ask the voters to increase the tax rates, or you cut spending. That’s the honorable thing to do.
Not like I’m holding my breath or anything, but honestly people can vote on their tax rates, but how often can you vote on your property valuation?
Reverse Mortgage.
Next?
Reverse Mortgage.
It would really be a shame for this guy to piddle away the equity in his home to pay his taxes. He should really move somewhere cheaper.
wowzers,
I just did my federal taxes and I got a hugeeee return. I’m glad I bought this year after all. I figured out that I’m actually only paying about $1200 after my refund per month for my 350k house. Not bad…. I was paying $1450 rent before I bought. And considering many are predicting that we will have a flat to 1% rise in median home prices this year I feel pretty good.
Sorry meant to say glad I bought last year.
“And someone from NJ complaining about DE traffic congestion?”
Have you been to Cape May County? Except for the shore areas, it’s pretty rural so the traffic in DE would be worse. It’s a very depressed area with no place to work except in service industries. My grandparents lived there and it was once a thriving area. Their town had factories where everyone worked but they closed many years ago. To let you know how depressed the area is, my dad sold their house in 2003 for $85,000. It was a nice house with a big piece of property.
#12 NHO
Didn’t you buy with an ARM? With 1% appreciation, you’re paying a lot more than 1200.
#12 If you got a refund, then you lent your money to the government free for a year.
Did you calcualte your anuual property tax increase there as well? The average increase i NNJ last year was $700.
Nor trying to be nasty, just pointing some facts out.
#16
It seems conceivable that he could pay 1200 after his refund with an ARM rate. It depends what was put down.
I was talking about negative equity.
… many are predicting that we will have a flat to 1% rise in median home prices this year
Yes, many are predicting that. Do you believe them?
I feel bad for this man. Fyi if you knew anything about the people down there they never leave, they don’t want to. Realistically it is so different down there that they cannot live anywhere else because there is no place like it. Also he cannot sell for 300-350 it is a sham. Lower Township has some brass ones, the Villas is poor always has been and still is, the assesment should be maybe 100-150k. Cape may county has 25-30% of its jobs in comercial fishing, 50% in tourism, and massive unemployment right now in winter. There will be hard times for everyone down there.