Revaluation speculation

Reading The Suburbanite can give you a pretty skewed view of the world. Not only do you come away with the impression that spell checking has gone out of fashion and that life sixty years ago was incomparably better than it is today, but you also get a strong dose of housing market propaganda from the publication's largest advertisers- the realtors. If the area's agents are to be believed, it is always a great time to be buying a house in northern NJ, where the housing market is perpetually healthy and strong. Recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors, however, paint a different picture.

The reason I bring this up is not to warn away potential homebuyers or promote my own view on the state of the housing market. There are plenty of superior sources for news and opinions of that variety. This information is pertinent because Appraisal Systems, Inc. is in the process of revaluing Teaneck's residential properties for the purposes of bringing Teaneck into compliance with a state mandate. As the housing market itself appears to be at a major turning point, there is a danger that homeowners will be presented with valuations that reflect the overheated market conditions in place just a short while ago rather than the considerably softer conditions we are experiencing today. I encourage homeowners to stay involved in the process and remain informed.

I do not mean to raise any alarms. There is no specific reason to believe that properties will be valued at anything other than fair and accurate levels. However, there is a heightened potential for a misstep here given how abruptly the housing market appears to have changed direction and it is worthwhile to be aware of that fact.

Of course, if every property in Teaneck is systematically overvalued by a common percentage, nobody would necessarily lose out. The revaluation and reassessment serve to update the tax records and make sure that improvements and other changes are fairly reflected in the distribution of the tax burden across properties. If individual properties are marked too high, however, certain people would be faced with large, unjustified tax increases next year.