Bloomfield residents eagerly await new assessed property values

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — With state and Essex County tax authorities having ordered the recently completed revaluation of Bloomfield residential and commercial properties, township administrator Matthew Watkins said last week there was concern by some residents that an increase in property value would mean higher taxes. But that is not necessarily so, he said, and taxes could be less.

Bloomfield has 11,667 residential properties and 811 commercial properties. Before the new tax rate is announced this summer, Watkins said it is impossible to predict a tax increase or decrease.

“This is not a simple thing,” he said of the relationship between property value and taxes. “There’s more factors that go into this. There are 13,000 factors that go into this.

“A key thing,” Watkins continued, “is that we didn’t ask for this revaluation. It’s recommended. We’re just saddled with this. It cost a lot of money for an assessment: approximately $200,000.”

Reassessments, he said, were “a necessary evil. Like it or not, people in the United States and New Jersey are taxed by the value of their property. You want to make sure they are proper.”

Homes in Bloomfield currently sell quickly and at higher than the asking price, and Watkins said this was good. He cited a significant drop in crime in the last four years and minimal tax increases during that same period as two factors as to why people are moving in.

“If my property value went up, I’d be happy,” he said.

The tax rate, he said, is determined by considering the money needed to run the township, its schools and Bloomfield’s share of running the Essex County government against the value of Bloomfield properties. If budgets hold steady while property values increase, the tax rate would decrease. Taxes are determined by multiplying the monetary value of property by a factored tax rate, which is arrived at by moving the decimal point of the rate two places to the left. For example, 1.23 would become .0123.

“No one knows what the new rate will be,” Watkins said, “but after the last reval in 2010, the rate dropped.”

The tax rate was 6.09 in 2010, he said, and decreased to 3.07 because the revaluation increased property values.

However, a lower tax rate does not necessarily mean lower taxes. On June 27, 2011, the Bloomfield Council approved a budget that increased taxes $244 on the average-assessed township home of $287,000. The average-assessed Bloomfield home in 2019, according to Watkins, was $271,200. He said a new average will be known after Sunday, March 15.

If a property owner has questions about their revaluation, he said they should call 201-493-8530 to make an appointment with a representative for Appraisal Systems Inc., the company responsible for the revaluations. Appointments take place at the Municipal Building in Council Chambers.

One Bloomfield resident who had an appointment last week was Sean Hambacher, a Class of 1982 Bloomfield High School graduate. He owns a small, two-family home on Barbara Street and said he paid $305,000 for it in 2011. In 2010, it was assessed at $272,000, but it has been reassessed at $390,000.

“I was floored,” he said incredulously about learning its new value. “I’d never get $390,000 for this. What would I have to list this at, $410,000? They’d laugh me out. If I could get $390,000 for it, I’d move today.”

Hambacher said, because of a scheduling difficulty, the appraiser did not come into his home. After his appointment with the company representative, he was told he would be contacted. A spokesperson for Appraisal Systems said the values are proposals and are not final.

  Bloomfield Council, Matthew Watkins