My assessment went down because we have a simple cap code house that had been way overvalued. We have done nothing to our house. If people have added on and redone, they have to expect that thy should pay more taxes. The problem is that the taxes are too high for other reasons. That won't go away overnight. We have to work at not overspending.

Honestly, the real estate bubble finally bursted and left homeowners with overvalued homes. Along with past town over spending, which includes school budgets, we are now where we are at. Just wait till the River Dell school district tax inequality dispute gets resolved. RE will be paying even more. Time to curb spending and enact more shared services.

The house pictured above is for sale and listed by Ms. Baron. That home is 5000 square feet. The real estate sales people are upset because this reassessment ended the subsidy that had been in place for such large homes. Under the old assessment the smaller homes in town were subsidizing the taxes of these larger homes. Because the old assessment valued the parcel of land more than the building, if you had the same lot size with a small house or a huge house on it you were paying close to the same amount in taxes. This reassessment corrected this inequity.

More importantly, and what is not adequately covered in the article is that this reassessment will have the effect of eliminating successful tax appeals which was the goal of this reassessment. The Borough was dying from an onslaught of tax appeals that we could not adequately defend. Moreover, the assessment company will pay to defend any tax appeals filed in the next two years. The Borough will not have the cost of defending any appeals.

We also own a simple cape and paid just under $11,000 in taxes last year. It seems to us that the Mac Mansions are finally getting their proper assessments. We are tired of subsidizing homes that are worth 3 to 4 times what ours is. I still can't get over that somebody on Monroe Ct. is only paying $5,900.

Thank you Mr. Bartelloni and the rest of the council. As a long time resident, this is the first tax break I've ever gotten. My cape is smaller than most and i was still paying what some of those larger homes was paying. Please keep up the good work!

so Robin Baron's is upset that the McMansions are now going to be taxed properly. The house on Valley was wrongly only being taxed 14K for a few years while houses half the size were paying about the same amount.

The taxes have been too high for years. But I would hope River Edge can get rid of some of the vacant lots. Remember years ago there was another gas station that has sat vacant for years. And now the old Sanduccis has no tenant. Lets focus on getting more commercial properties in town that are good quality stores.

1st of all McMansions take the same space, house the same number of people and send same number of kids to school, while paying almost double in taxes.
2nd the prices for those McMensions will drop due to the new taxes (no one in the right mind will want to pay taxes higher than in Ridgewood). And then next year you will see another wave of the reassessments

Did anyone go online and use the new tool provided by the company that did the assessment? It's called the "Property Reassessment - Estimated Tax Impact Worksheet." I did. My assessment decreased by almost $10k, but my estimated adjusted tax amount increased by $1,127. I'm glad I didn't start celebrating my lower assessment, yet. The estimated adjusted tax rate is showing as 3.035% compared to the 2011 rate of 2.671%. So, decreased assessments may still result in increased taxes...

yes if you assesment decresed by less then 12% you will see the tax increase

Thanks Mr. Bartelloni, I would expect such an answer from you since you voted for this ridiculous assessment. The first question I have for everyone that is so supportive of this reassessment is how do you define a McMansion? Is 3000 square feet a McMansion? Would you pay 18,000, 19,000 or 20 plus thousand in property taxes to live in a 3000 square foot home? The people who bought these homes in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 most likely would NOT have paid these ridiculous taxes for such homes (than you would have vacant lots)!

Another point that needs to be shared with everyone is it is NOT just the newer homes Mr. Bartelloni seems to have such disdain for. Long time residents who made improvements to their homes over the years also get screwed under this new assessment. Great, the new message for the town of River Edge, come live here but do not improve your home in any way b/c if you do you will be taxed to death.

I wonder Mr. Bartelloni can we blame you and the city council when new home construction stops in this town b/c nobody is willing to pay the ridiculous taxes? Can we blame you when folks can't sell their homes b/c the taxes under this new assessment are crazy on newer and or homes that made additions? Can we blame you when people decide against any additions/improvements to their homes because they are afraid of the taxes?

Mr. Bartelloni, while you may have solved one problem you have created others that will have a more profound affect on the town.

Dr. Doom, you are 100% percent correct. Why would anyone pay higher taxes in River Edge than Ridgewood? That is exactly what Mr. Bartelloni doesn't get. if this proposal goes through the long term viability of the town is in trouble.

So everyone who his helped by this proposal today, I wish you the best over the next few years. Unfortunately, it seems like we have a council that has absolutely no vision

I would have liked to see a little more balance in the article including statements from residents who are not realtors and some who live in older, more modest homes. Of course, if just the meeting was being covered, maybe the only people there were the ones who had something to complain about. It is good that the comments here are bringing that out. Hopefully, there won't be slew of additional anonymous posters slinging insults.

As stated by earlier comments, the assessments of less expensive homes were changed to what many would consider a more equitable value. I'm not surprised the homes that many of the realtors are referring to did have an increase, and, unfortunately, that is not good for those home sales. On the flip side, overvalued smaller/older homes is not good for the people who own them, which probably include some of the senior citizens that are being forced out of town due to high taxes. It is unfortunate that people who bought new homes in the last few years were under-assessed and, therefore, ended up with large, unexpected increases. However, taxes are a zero-sum game. There is a fixed amount of money to be raised and it is divided among all the tax payers based on assessments. The tax rate is set to collect the required amount of money as budget. The money that the owners of undervalued homes didn't have to pay in the last few years was being paid by owners of smaller, over-assessed homes who didn't fight for or win a tax appeal.

The problem is this town cannot attract viable businesses. Too many vacant buildings is absud. Years ago the town had a great plan but as usual nothing materializes. Lets see this mayor do something as the former one was full of false hope.

so Bill so how do you think the taxes will change for those people in small houses once there will be no new McMansions that pay 50-70% more in taxes, and current ones will drop in value, and guess what the owners of those Mcmansions going to do.
also based on current numbers that i see and recent sales those McMansions are overassesed ...

I think your all missing the point. Of course the larger homes are going to be harder to sell and go down somewhat in value but the bulk of the homes are in my boat and should sell faster due to the lower tax bite. Over time it should level out with the Macs going down some what but not enough to hurt the others. Let the buyer beware. Just because the assessment system in this town allowed the Mac owners to get away with way too low taxes for years and now they will have to pay what they should is no reason to continue to screw us in smaller homes. I am going to say it once again I have a CAPE and I'm paying just shy of $11,000 in taxes. I don't want to subsidize the Macs anymore. It is time for the pendulum to swing the other way.

framus good post. But do you want this town to be all CAPES like yours by people who are so cheap they will not improve their properties. Should we penalize people who have the money to live in a big house. Maybe you should be penalized for not updating your house. Who would want to live in a CAPE when you can live in a McMansion. Just because you want to live in a tiny house and make our town look cheap does not mean you should get away with not paying your share. So why should we all not live in tiny old shacks from the 1950s or outdated ranches.

1. To the Realtor who had a listing at 750K that sold for 530K, perhaps the asking price was too high; last I checked it is 2012, not 2006, the real estate bubble has popped and the party is long over. The clean up however continues.

2. To the same Realtors I would ask now that you are claiming that taxes will drive people out of town, were you cautioning against the out of control school building referendums that have been voted for by the residents over the last 7 or 8 years? Doubtful, in fact if I had to guess I would say it was exactly the opposite. So now we are stuck with outrageous taxes much of which has come with the out of control school spending, so which do you want? You want reasonable taxes limit spending.

3. The smaller houses were subsidizing the Mc Mansions, and that inequity has been addressed. If you choose to live in a 4 or 5 bedroom 3 bath or more house, than you pay for it. To the poster who disparages those who live in the modest capes, colonials, and ranches, perhaps those people wish to other things with their money rather than throw it all away on increased property taxes. Also to assume those people are cheap is in an word ignorant. I would also like to add that many of those homes are in excellent condition and have been maintained over the years. I doubt the Mc Mansions will hold up as well through the years.Also to assume that all of those people who have purchased Mc Mansions have money is also ignorant, looks can be very deceiving.

4. To the posters who continuously berate the Mayor & Council on bringing new business's into town what exactly would you like them to do? Are you telling me that all the empty store fronts are the fault of the Mayor & Council, no demand coupled with ridiculous rents and or asking prices is why we do not have more commercial rateables; you cannot force a business to come into town

5. The whole redevelopment dream was simply that a dream, it will not be happening on any large scale. The only development we are getting is more condos and apartments, which will negatively impact taxes as the potential is there for more children in the local school districts. This in turn will make Oradell more steadfast in fighting the funding formula for the regional schools. Whatever ultimately happens both towns will loose in the form of property taxes continuing to spiral out of control.
6. Many residents now appear to be in an uproar over taxes, yet if they were honest they could have seen this coming. If you want to spend, spend, spend, than you pay, pay, pay, in the form of ever higher property taxes. To now blame the Mayor and Council for the problem, whether they be Democrats or Republicans is disingenuous.

out of control school spending. If it were not for so many cheap people in the town the budget and open space would have passed. instead you must live in a tiny cape and be single or hate kids.

and the problem is the mayor and counctil. The current mayor and previous won lied when they said they would bring more business in. Where is it? Lets go!

I find it so ironic that the owners of the smaller homes in RE argue against 'subsidizing' the owners of the larger homes and yet when Oradell requests an adjustment in the school funding formula to discontinue subsidizing RE students the answer is no. Can't have it both ways people!

Ernie: Maybe people who don't feel they have to show that they have more money than their neighbors. Maybe people who find that a cape is a perfectly fine-sized house, especially as the McMansion loses favor in an economy where expectations will have to be lowered. Plenty of people raised families in these capes and ranches and their kids not only survived, but thrived. Tray ceilings and granite don't make miserable people happy, but enough money left over from paying to heat these monstrosities to send your kids to college just might.

Interesting mentality when people who pay $10K in taxes feel that they subsides people who pay $20K in taxes for the same services

A cape or colonial is a nice starting home for a young couple and they are not something that would drive people away from the town. My house is very energy efficient with a new bathroom and kitchen and a top of the line efficient furnace. Like most smaller homes in town they have been updated and are very appealing to people who don't need BIG. I have seen some of the construction materials used in the monoliths and I didn't see a lot of insulation going in or very efficient hvac systems. Sure some people have left and had their homes torn down there's bound to be someone who wants to live in the in the monoliths with no property left to speak of, that doesn't mean the house wasn't worth saving it just means the buyer didn't plan on living here just making a fast buck and selling. And by the way the bigger the house the more people you can put in it and thus the more services you require from the town so the MACs could require more services and thus should pay more taxes.

It wasn't only the newer large homes that got hit hard. It was also many people who simply moved to the town within the past few years. We tried to make a responsible decision by buying a middle sized home, mid-small sized lot that we would not need to expand because we felt we couldn't afford the taxes tied to such a home. Well now we're paying the taxes of the much larger homes or much larger lots in town yet we don't have the goods to back it up. Neighbors with *highly* comparably homes are paying 1,200-1,500 less than us now. And to boot, a large swathe of the town has been under-assessed by 20-30% below true market value so we have absolutely no recourse to fight at the county level (appeals are based solely on sales prices). Meanwhile, all of the large homes that have been overassessed will appeal, win, and shift that burden onto us. Up until last month we were thrilled with our decision to move to RE. Now, we fear it will have been the single worst decision of our life. Our only hope is that enough taxpayers will start showing up at the council meetings to demand that something be done to get the town's tax bill under control. We clearly have a serious problem.

RENJ80 can you please share what your new assessment is (either give an estimate or exact amount)
In additon, if my house is now accessed at 390K can anyone tell me what my taxes will be?

This reassessment will make me and others vacate this town. I bought a renovated home over the summer that has 2060 feet of livable space. In 2011 I was paying approximately $9900 in taxes which I knew was, but was thankful for. With this wonderfully new assessment. I'm slated to be paying approximately $15700. With this increase, I am wondering if it's even worth staying in this home. I'm sure that it will be impossible to sell, so I hope the town will be happy when people just start walking away from their homes and letting them run into the ground.

Our new assessment is mid 400's with a tax bill that will end up a hair under $14K. At 390K in assessed value you can expect to pay $11,837 + the estimated increase of $147, total of $11,984.

The difficult thing about selling now is that if you use an agent, you're looking at 4-5% commission, the NJ realty transfer tax, 2 sets of closing costs plus the actual cost of a move. It would take years to make up the tax dollars - not to mention that other towns in the county have similar issues. It's practically extortion especially now that the taxes are killing the market.

I personally wish the town would go back to the revaluation company and have them revisit their work. If you look at the most recent sales data, the reassessment numbers are way off on many of the homes.

Our only hope is to have people start showing up at the meetings and demand that they start thinking outside the box, approaching other towns regarding shared services and start putting some serious pressue on the school to get their financial house in order.

Let's talk about the 600 pound gorilla in the room that somebody mentioned earlier. SCHOOL TAXES. They make up 65% of my tax bill. That is where you have to go to get tax relief. Here's an idea. I don't think that Oradell will get any relief, however, I suggest we have the council go to them with an idea. All 3 systems go to a different method of funding the schools. A per pupil charge of $1500 or $2000 per pupil for all pupils no discount for large families. (This could be phased in over a number of years to soften the cost) The rest of the funding would come through the normal taxation system. This would give Oradell some relief, seniors and non-children homes some relief and commercial properties some relief possibly attracting more of them. It would also shift the burden to the people driving the cost and more importantly to the apartment dwellers who I think we can all agree do not pay their fair share. Just throwing out the idea.

So we are going to impose a tax on those with kids. While that is a nice idea it is not done anywhere. I have to wonder if those questioning the schools even have kids. Without good quality schools property values will go down even more and capping school funidng and teachers salaries is not the answer unless you want incompetent teachers and 30 kids in a classroom.

The NJ income tax covers I believe about 45% of the cost of educating all public school students, but most towns only receive enough money to cover 5 - 10% of the budget due to NJ Supreme Court decisions to shift 60% of the money to a handful of school districts. Those decisions were likely the tipping point. In the meantime our residents are sending millions a year in income tax out of district and funding the vast majority of our own district through sky high property taxes.

That being said, I'm sick of hearing people whine about not being able to do anything. Can't touch the schools, can't touch police, can't tough services. Change has got to start somewhere. Where's our district's state representative? We should be putting pressure on them - give them some examples of where the state has left our residents. Get on the county - how much of the pie goes to them? And continue to get on the town. A problem this massive isn't going to be solved by any one piece of the puzzle. It's going to take problem solving in every area.

There already is a cap on school funding - it's 2%, mandated by the state of NJ. On average, 75- 80% of a school budget goes to staff salaries and benefits. That leaves 20-25% for building maintenance, utilties, books, technology, etc. Think about that folks. Support our governor in his efforts to rein in costs, don't buy the NJEA's chatter about 'caring for our kids' . And for the record Mr. Barry, I am well aware of current state funding requirements. However, the fact is that in a regional district like RiverDell, the supporting districts can come together and change the formula to one that is more equitable, so if RE wanted to do the right thing, they would compromise with Oradell. I know how the voting went between the 2 towns, Oradell overwhelmingly in favor of change, RE not. - so the formula will stay the same for now.

lucky: The vote was only the starting point, the matter of the River Dell state funding is currently with the state; Oradell last I read is waiting for their response. And from what I understand they (Oradell) plan to take the matter all the way to the state supreme court.

The problem RE residents do not seem to grasp, is this fixation on the law, for the current funding mechanism, and that because of this law Oradell should just accept the status quo. Oradell's contention is that the law is no longer equitable due to the overwhelming number of additional students that RE sends to the district; that is what they want addressed. Were the situation reveresed between the 2 towns, RE would be doing the same thing; amazing to me that RE residents refuse to acknowledge this.

I just found out my accessed value is $375K. Is their a formula to figure this out. If yes where is it and how much will I pay. And now I was planning to do a 450 sqare foot addition. Now how will that affect my taxes. So if my accessed value went up 40K how much more would I pay.

I still feel you all are missing the key point. It is the lack of businesses in the town. Huffman Koos shopping center vacant for years and now the old Sanduccis restaurant is vacant. A former gas station vacant for years. And more. If these places were all occupied what if all our taxes went down 10%. Instead mayor after mayor in this town campaigns on change and what do we get.

Does anyone know what will be the new equalized ratio after this assesment (routh estimate). then it will be easy to figure out chances of appeal

IS there a charge to appeal. I just saw the other article with all the houses listed. Now I call the appraiser in Glen Rock and they say it is too late. Do I have to pay to appeal. Basically all the other houses around mine are accesssed lower and some are bigger. Ticked off now! If I appeal with the county is there a charge? Can my accessmen be increased if they disagree with me.

rrrr, there's a nominal charge for the appeal, I believe $100. I believe we will be given 45 days to appeal once we receive our offical "cards" with the new assessment. I feel the same way, however there's a chance you might be assessed below the true market value. The only way to successfully fight on appeal is by comparable sales data. If a house with the same criteria as yours sold for 15% below what yours is assessed at you will win. I'm told it's rare for the town to file a counter-appeal, by which they would attempt to raise your taxes instead. It seems the current mayor and council have some opportunities brewing for the vaccant commercial properties and land. Let's hope these plans go through! That would offer at least a little relief to the single family residences.

B@B how did you calculate the "Fair Value" of the house? it cant be just the assesment number. that number was made lowon purpose.
Is it the assesment value / equalized ratio ?

For an appeal why do we need comparable sales prices when we have the accessed values of houses of our neighbors.

looks like during the assessment they artificially lowered everyone's value, at the end they increased the tax rate to get the tax they want. Now in order to lower the assessment you have to compare that artificially low value with real sale prices.

this is nuts. 2 people buy a mcmansion and pay $14K for years and now they are complaining that they cannot afford to live here. We have subsidized them for years.I will gladly pay their taxes and i hope they default on their house. I am ticked off that for years the 85% of us were overpaying while they were underpaying.

@REGOINGDOWNHILL - where did you get that number $14k? the numbers that i see for the McMansions are in the range of $18K-$22K (that's before reassesment), what are you paying - $11K-$13K? and you strongly believe that you subsidise someone that pay almost double of what you pay? Dont you think we need more of those McMansions to continue subsidies YOU.
Or you are glad to pay more just to see someone to default on his/her house. Nice mentality.

o yes for years the house on Valley was being undertaxed

I laugh when I hear the mayor and council have something brewing as far as commercial development. Ok well then what is brewing. Are we talking about anything or false hope and smoke and mirrors.

My taxes are going down about $400 per month as are most peoples in River Edge, it is not our fault that some homes were undervalued.

To the poster complaing about the old Huffman Koos and Sanducci's. The yearly tax for those two properties is around 60K a year. What kind of difference will that make to RE's out of control taxes?

@REEDGEDOWNHILL did you take into consideration new tax ratio? I just checked there is not a single house in RE with such a huge difference. The biggest difference is $300/month
@GGT you are right, even if somehow that place will collect $500K/year it would be just 1.5% of the total tax levy.
However if the town makes McMansion friendly environment - for EVERY 60 new houses we should get the same extra tax. And town does not even have to be involved.
At this moment the the concept of McMantions is killed in this town.

To all those who commented that the development plans are a dream - you're probably right, and as a cynic at heart I feel the same way - I'll believe it when I see it. One thing I'll be requesting from the council (and I'll confirm with my own calculations) is an estimation of lost revenue from vacant buildings & lands. I agree with the comment that it's not THAT much - but it would be something which is better than nothing. The last I heard they lost 200K per year on the HK building alone being torn down. Now as a newcomer to the town I can appreciate the gripe of the smaller homeowners who felt they were paying more than their fair share. Fine. But let's be honest - if those lots didn't have those homes on them we'd all be paying tax of upwards of 20K+ regardless of what size home we lived in. When you boil it all down the single glaring issue is that the taxpayers are footing too large of a bill. We have a multitude of problems on our hands - we're getting the same level of funding from the state as much wealthier districts - this seems odd to me and maybe after this revaluation we'd qualify for more funding?, we're too small of a town not to try and regionalize the services or flat out merge with other towns, maybe we need to seek out more grants (grant consultant? - again, believe results when we see them). Other towns are doing a better job - what are they doing? I truly am a cynical person, but one thing is for sure - defeatism gets you to one place -nowhere.

200k per year for years. Plus a vacant gas station, sanduccis and other places lets say this is 500k per year. And as citizens do you think the perception of our town improves when people see acres that look worse than a dump as they enter our town. The old mayor made promises and campaigned on things that was a fallacy. I hope the new one is better but I was once an optimist but I am sick of this town and I am moving out.

I have no problem paying 20K in taxes but not in River Edge

It's unfortunate that some residents will rather have no more additions and larger homes in town so they can keep the town filled with 1950 style cape that need remodeling. The reality is taxes are very high in river edge regardless of what type home you own with that said most people will not move to a town with older capes and high taxes there is no appeal. One of the few attractions to the town was the larger newer homes and by the way that usually will increase value of old capes. However with the high taxes this is a must leave the town scenario.......

The dirty politician continues their game, as you can see Christie only played a shell game with taxes!

Based on sales records for the 2010-2011 (that were used for the reassesment)

on average houses were assessed 12% lower then actual sale price (shouldnt it be same as sales price???)
houses $700K+ were assessed 6% lower than the sales price
houses $400K-$700K were assessed 15% lower than sales price
houses bellow $400K were assessed 6% lower than the sales price

What does livable space mean? does that include basement or not.

so how do you define livable space if basement is partially finished and just needs tile

WHERE IS The retail space. what a joke you drive in to River Edge and see a sign PRIME RETAIL SPACE> may as well make it a JUNK YARD.
it is horrible
and people beleive this talk of possible hype additional retail

I'm one of the people living in a lovely 1930s cape and I would like to understand how my 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom home was reassessed more than $60K under what the last assesment was in 2009, which was what I paid for it in 2008, (when our block appealed and we won a reduction in taxes), yet my taxes are increasing $2460.00 a year?? How is this fair? I haven't put on an addition or done any major home updates, save a new roof courtesy of Hurricane Irene damage. My value was reduced by just more than 17%. Anyone able to explain this?

Forget about driving people put of town, it won't drive people into town either. Because they will look at the taxes and laugh, shake theri heads and move one. Even with the reassesment it looks to me that the average yearly tax on a modest cape, ranch or colonial is still around 10k a year, and rising!!

Shocking as it is to some residents there are other alternatives to River Edge out there just as good, and better with lower taxes.

People wake up!! There is no fighting your taxes!! They assessed us at 100% and to fight your taxes you have to show them sales of the previous year 1/1/11 to 10/1/11. Not assessments. So if your new assessment is 400k at 100% (from 450K @ 91.72Equalization Ratio) you have to show them sales of lower then 340K good luck. They lowered the assessments and raised the rate to 3.035 so there is no way to win. As far as this McMansion controversy. If the McMansions loose value so does everyone else, I don’t care what type of home you own. If an 800K home falls to 650K because of the taxes what do you think 450K Reece colonial will fall to. We all loose sooner or later. The next problem is who is going to buy those dilapidated ranches or capes? Builders won’t touch them because of the taxes and first time home buyers won’t because when they renovate their taxes will go through the roof. Once again we all loose because when these home go unsold the values of our homes go down.

Arent they comparing the (assesed value / eq ratio) when comparing to sales? and the eq ratio is set by county crooks not by the town crooks. So if the town assesed everyone at artificially lower price point (which they did) will county make the eq ratio smaller to make the prices match the sales prices?
overwise the Oradell will get a nice jump in taxes next year due to the fact the the whole RE went down

From my meeting with the appraisers, they told me that our new assessment is at 100%. So, if you are appraised at 450K X 3.035 your new tax will be $13,657.50 and the 450K represents 100% of market value (sale price).

I see, so they are crooks , they artificially lowered every body's assessment so people are not able to appeal

Dr. Doom: paramus has all the business because last I checked Paramus has Rt 4 and 17 running through the town. River only has a small sliver of Rt 4. Business wants to be on the highways, and so they will go to Paramus. It has been the case all along, otherwise the south end of town would have been developed/redeveloped years ago. It really is very simple. The residents and Mayor & Council should have seen that very clear fact over the years.

gixx: The values of homes are falling becasue the reale state bubble is still deflating, the tax situation in town only adds to it.

if you look at the stats of the assesment vs actual sales prrices McMansions were inline with sales prices (9% under with eq county factor 91%). On other hand if you look at houses $400-$700 range they assesed 15% under the sales price (looking at the sale prices supposably used for the new assesment).
So through the creative accounting RE shifter the taxes to the McMansions and killed the easy money coming to the town in the form of extra tax

look at Paramus - construction boom. RE - 1 house beeing built. and i dont think we should expect anything else

gixx: I don't know where you are getting your numbers form (sounds like the typical River Edge denial so many residents suffer from), but house prices are down at least 20% from the peak, and that is a fact. You are right in that the out of control property taxes will continue to pressure prices down in River Edge as prices begin to stabilize in other towns. But seriously the fact that you believe prices are only down 5 to 7% from the peak is shocking!!!

Dr Doom: i don't know what construction boom in Paramus you are talking about, there is some fill in activity both residential and on the 4 and 17 corridors. The fact is if a business is going to open, most will locate on the 4/17 corridor to capture all the shoppers; that is simple common sense. The Mayor does not need to hold a round table discussion with business owners in River Edge to figure that out.

Meanwhile in other news Scripps is buying MEDCO located in Franklin Lakes, which is going to lead to layoffs and possibly more empty office space in Bergen Co. Medco is the largest employer in Bergen County, not good for Franklin Lakes, and not good for the Bergen County housing market in general.

I do agree that the 4/17 helps the situation in Paramus, however the south of RE is not in the bad position as well. I dont think that the introduction of the extra business will make much difference in RE (extra $100-$200K / year is nice but not life changing).
What could have made the difference is the replacing some old houses with the McMansions ($7K year extra surplus on each McMansion guaranteed w/o any effort). Now that's dead.
I have friends living in Paramus to the West of the VS park. When i visit them i see at least 8-9 new constructions on 3 streets that i pass. The whole RE probably has 1-2 constructions overall (no surprise here).

Dr Doom: if the south end of RE was desirable it would have been developed years ago. As far as A Mc Man in Paramus vs. RE, if someone wants one of those things they might as well buy in Paramus, cheaper taxes, and the schools are just as good.

gixx: Average prices in River Edge (as well as elsewhere in the region) have fallen 20% form the peak. Look at some of the Mc Mansion resales for sale in town now, and look at what they originally sold for 5 and 6 years ago. Also look at the average house prices for sale now, and look at what they sold for 5, 6 years ago. As far as my information, it is from a friend who is a Realtor/Broker, and the Case-Shiller Housing index that is released every month. Prices in our area,including River Edge are back to early 2003 levels, and that is a fact.

With all due respect it is shocking to me that you are not aware of that. That being said as I said the out of control taxes in town will continue to press prices further downwards in town while others stabilize as the housing market finds its bottom in late 2013.

gixx: All the houses in town are losing value as the market continues to correct from the excess of the bubble. River Edge is and will continue to fall more because of the out of control taxes. And If Oradell wins the finding fight over the schools, its all over.

Anzevino is real something - quoting him "The majority of the values went down, which makes any appeals much easier to defend," explained Anzevino at the March 19 council meeting. As a result of the reassessment, he said, "I can't see us losing many appeals at all. If we do, I would be very, very surprised." Since the reassessment numbers were released, no appeals have been filed, he said."

of course didnt hurt artificially lowering all the assesments in the town making it hard to appeal.

He got fired from Bergenfield for screwing up there taxes. Just like RE. but he still has a job in RE. He is also the tax assessor in Oradell and Paramus. He is a piece of work. (to put it nicely)

Please take a look at the attached PDF on the top of the page for some interesting stats of the reassessment as well as government official comments in regards to the results of the reassessment

We need something more drastic to fundamentally change the trend of ever-increasing property taxes in River Edge. Think about merging with other municipalities to reduce the administrative costs. Think about enhancing the performance of the schools so that neighboring municipalities such as Paramus will be interested in the merge. Mediocre school performance and high taxes are taking heavy toll on us. People are rushing to enlist the house and new potential buyers are turning away. River Edge carries non-performing lands and properties and former and current administration got no good strategy to revive the borough. This is a country where independence was fought because of the tax hike. Concerned citizens should rise to seek more drastic measures from the Mayor and the Council members. Do they have strategy?

They reduced the property tax base, but increase 16% the property tax rate, resulting in more or less 10% net tax increase in my case. This, I consider, is outrageous. Some people might have got an overall increase of 20 to 30%. This is on top of the tax increase of 5% or more, every year, in the last several years. Every organization, firm, company, every one else is cutting down in this age. Why do we keep silent when our borough keeps rising taxes again and again and again and again. This seems endless and it must be stopped. Let us call our Mayor, our Councilman to raise our concerns and let them stop this non-sense. They should present a strategy to reduce the taxes, while enhancing the service of the borough. If they cannot do it, let us work with Oradell residents to merge the municipals and reduce the administrative costs as a first step. Thereafter, a strategy is need to enable the merge with Paramus, which has incredibly low taxes. Does anybody have any strategy.

We are amost considering retirement.At this rate with an empty nest,it would be just as good to rent an apartment.Im paying over a grand per month to live in my house.I could invest what little we get for our house now and have no worries.Sad fact.Who would buy our house? The taxes alone higher than a rental.People would hold off until they needed room for kids.This is what kills the market as well.We would be stuck and drained.Our retirement funds wont pay our light bill!Let alone the taxes.