The high cost of living is starting to drive residents out, as more homeowners in the state face mortgage delinquencies.
Already the highest in the nation, residential property taxes in New Jersey saw the biggest growth in three years during 2014, and the continued high cost of living is starting to drive residents out.
According to data from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, residential property taxes increased 2.2% in 2014 to an average of $8,161. The disparity between New Jersey’s property taxes and the rest of America is astounding.
The Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan, joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution reported 79% of American homeowners paid less than $1,750 in property taxes annually. Only 3% paid more than $4,000 and a miniscule share of homeowners — just 0.2% — pay more than $8,000.
The median home value in New Jersey is $288,700, the second highest in the nation (California is no.1 $414,700). New Jersey home values have gone up 6% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 1.8% within the next year.
Meanwhile, approximately 17.6% of homes in the state have negative equity compared to the national average of 16.9%, and 17.9% of borrowers are delinquent on their mortgages compared to the national average of 6.4%, according to Zillow data.
More than half of New Jersey residents say they want to eventually leave the state, and more than a quarter of them say their future departure is “very likely,” according to a recent Monmouth University poll.
By comparison, only 45% of current residents say they’d like to live out their lives in the Garden State, numbers that continue to reflect a seven-year trend.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said the survey found the state’s high cost of living is the driving factor, “the chief culprit among these costs is the New Jersey’s property tax burden,” he told NJ.com.
According to data from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, residential property taxes increased 2.2% in 2014 to an average of $8,161. The disparity between New Jersey’s property taxes and the rest of America is astounding.
The Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan, joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution reported 79% of American homeowners paid less than $1,750 in property taxes annually. Only 3% paid more than $4,000 and a miniscule share of homeowners — just 0.2% — pay more than $8,000.
The median home value in New Jersey is $288,700, the second highest in the nation (California is no.1 $414,700). New Jersey home values have gone up 6% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 1.8% within the next year.
Meanwhile, approximately 17.6% of homes in the state have negative equity compared to the national average of 16.9%, and 17.9% of borrowers are delinquent on their mortgages compared to the national average of 6.4%, according to Zillow data.
More than half of New Jersey residents say they want to eventually leave the state, and more than a quarter of them say their future departure is “very likely,” according to a recent Monmouth University poll.
By comparison, only 45% of current residents say they’d like to live out their lives in the Garden State, numbers that continue to reflect a seven-year trend.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said the survey found the state’s high cost of living is the driving factor, “the chief culprit among these costs is the New Jersey’s property tax burden,” he told NJ.com.
