Huge Property Tax Increases Coming

Co-op and condo owners will pay sharply higher property taxes next year in NYC, under a preliminary assessment roll released Friday by the Bloomberg administration, WSJ reports. The city attributed the rises, due to take effect in July, to higher market values placed on apartment buildings by tax assessors.

Taxes collections are expected to rise by 7.5% for co-op owners, and 9.6% for condo owners across the city, according to a summary report released by the Department of Finance.

These are, of course, higher assessments than the actual property value increases. It's Bloomberg's sneaky way of raising tax revenue. But there has been some strength in the NYC market to provide cover for Bloomberg's high assessments.

Fed Chairman Bernanke's first money pump (QE1) went directly to Wall Street and that's why you see the higher assessments in NYC, but QE2 is about the rest of the country.

What's going on in NYC is what Bernanke wants nationwide!

One of the main reasons he is goosing the money supply is so that state and local governments will collect more in taxes to pay off their huge debts.  If he can get an uptick in property values nationwide, then the assessors will takeover from there, and spike the valuations. Bottom line: Expect much higher assessments across the country over the next two years.

Robert Wenzel - January 16, 2011 - EconomicPolicyJournal

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