9% Is Estimate For Expansion Of Real Estate
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The total estimated market value of all city real estate grew about 9% last year, to $670.7 billion, according to data released by the Department of Finance yesterday.
The previous year, the market value of all city real estate grew 14%, and it increased 16% the year before that. The decrease in growth is yet more evidence that the city’s real estate market has cooled from its recent breakneck pace, analysts said.
The market data was part of the tentative property assessment roll for fiscal year 2007, which was published yesterday by the finance department. The assessments are used to calculate property tax bills. In June, the city will use the final property assessment roll and new tax rates approved by the City Council to create property tax bills for fiscal year 2007. They will be mailed on July 1.
A real estate appraiser and author of a widely read market report, Jonathan Miller, said the city’s market numbers are mostly consistent with recent private sector market analyses.
“It parallels what we are seeing in the overall real estate market: an increase in prices over the last couple of years and the anticipation that over the next few years we will not see the same level of appreciation,” Mr. Miller said.
“The factors that are driving the slowdown in growth is a modest upward trend in mortgage rates, which has dampened the pace of real estate sales activity. We are still at record levels, but it should temper growth over the next couple of years if rates continue to rise,” he said.
Mr. Miller also said an oversupply of new residential developments could slow down price appreciation in the coming years.
The increase in market values evident in yesterday’s report should bump up property tax bills for many property owners across the five boroughs should tax rates remain stable.
A spreadsheet prepared by the finance department showed that the owners of one-, two-, or three-family homes will pay on average $149 more in property taxes. Co-op owners will pay an average of $108 more, and condo owners will pay an average of $186 more.
Bloomberg administration officials said the potential increase in taxes will be offset by the third of three $400 tax rebates, which is to be mailed to owners this October. Finance Commissioner Martha Stark said the property tax increases experienced by many property owners over the last fours years will on average be completely offset by the three $400 rebates.
Last year, the speaker of the City Council at the time, Gifford Miller, voiced a different point of view. He said the rise in market values and property taxes would rob New Yorkers of some of their scheduled property tax rebate.
Ms. Stark blamed this year’s more modest growth rate on slower sales and increased maintenance costs for coops, condos, and apartment buildings. She also said the city is coming off the largest market growth rates in decades.
In a turnaround from last year, Manhattan experienced the slowest growth in property values of the five boroughs, at 5.4%. Queens experienced the largest growth, followed by Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
The Manhattan market slowed because of its high concentration of class 2 properties, which include rental buildings and most cooperatives and condominium apartments. Citywide, the market value of those properties grew only 2.8% last year, according to the report. The previous year, the city said the value grew more than 13%.
The assistant commissioner of the finance department, Dara Ottley-Brown, said there are dual factors that led to slow growth rates for co-ops, condos and rental properties. She said there were “strong sales” of co-ops and condos, but “flat or only slightly increasing rents” for rental properties.
Class 1 properties, which include one-, two-, and three-family homes – and are located mostly in boroughs other than Manhattan – increased 13% in value, to $367.4 billion. These properties will experience only a 5.4% increase in their assessment value due to a state law that limits tax increases.
Class 4 properties, which include office buildings, hotels, factories, and garages, grew by 7.5%. Because state law mandates that tax increases be phased in, the increase in taxes on these properties will be 5.8%. There is no $400 rebate for owners of class 4 properties.
The property with the highest market value in the five boroughs is the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. The city valued the mixed-use residential, commercial, and hotel towers at nearly $1 billion, about 9% more than the second most valuable property, the Met Life Building.
This week the city is mailing the tentative tax assessments to all city property owners. Last year, about 42,000 owners opted to challenge the city’s assessments and about 14% of those protesting were granted reductions to their assessments. The final tax roll is released in late May and includes changes made by the city Tax Commission.