New property tax rates for New York City were just released for the 2009/2010 tax year that runs from July 1 through June 30. The new tax rate for class 1 (single-family) property is 17.088%, for class 2 (multi-family) property, 13.241% and for class 4 (commercial) property, 10.426%.
If you look at tax rate growth over the past 20 years, class 1 and 2 rates have historically grown faster than their class 4 counterparts.
Over the 20-year period from 1989/90 through 2009/10 the class 2 tax rate grew 43.5% (from 9.229% to 13.241%); over the same period the class 4 tax increased only 9.3% (from 9.539% to 10.426%).  The tax rate for single-family residential, class 1, went up a whopping 80.8% over this period!
The tax rate, of course, is only one part of the equation in calculating the property’s actual real estate taxes, the other components being the assessor’s estimate of market value and the state mandated equalization rate (45% for multi-family and commercial property in the city). The whole issue of assessed valuation and taxation is a specialized real estate appraisal discipline that I don’t really get involved in. But this disparity in tax rate growth makes me wonder why commercial property is being let off the hook while the residential property owners are apparently getting slammed!
