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Why don't they just assess it accurately and lower the tax rate to a normal amount, making it more transparent and predictable? It seems owners are at the mercy of the assessed value, which the city could crank up arbitrarily?

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Well, the assessment in NYC, unlike other places is actually pretty predictable and transparent, but not simple.

If you are Class 1, it is 6% of FMV If you are Class 2+ it is 45% of FMV

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/definitions-of-prope...

Except the FMV of condo and condominium units aren't actually fair market values. Instead they are based on a model designed to figure out what income the building would produce if it were a rental building.

And that's before taking abatements into account. The system overall is not very transparent.

Right, so you get an effective rate of 1.2% of FMV for class 1, 5.8% of FMV for class 2. So the rate is just a bit higher than California for class 1, which might explain why brownstones are so expensive in NYC relative to larger buildings.

The annual rise in assessments is limited by statute.

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