Westchester Home Prices Sink Due To Tax Cap: Report

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — People trying to sell houses in affluent communities in Westchester are suffering this summer, according to an Aug. 1 article on Bloomberg. They're finding that sticker shock is depressing high-end home prices, the article said.

What's shocking potential buyers are the state and local property taxes — specifically, how far over the $10,000 federal cap those local and state taxes are. Westchester has the highest property taxes in the nation.

"Longtime homeowners who dreamed of offloading their empty nests are finding their plans complicated by the tax bill, as would-be buyers hold back, expecting sellers to cut their prices," wrote Oshrat Carmiel and Jeremy Hill. They quoted agents saying that house prices, especially at the top of the market, were being repeatedly reduced.

A Patch search Friday for single-family houses in Westchester for sale with reduced prices turned up 1,285 homes on Realtor.com, many reduced more than once. According to the second-quarter report from the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, the inventory of single family homes in Westchester was 3,117 at the end of June.

However, Barry Kramer, president of HGAR, said that median sale prices were up in the second quarter of 2018 by 6.1 percent over April, May and June of last year. He attributed a slight decline in sales to lack of inventory.

"If a home is fairly priced, it moves quickly," he said. "The only area that might have taken a dip are the highest-priced homes from what I'm seeing. I'm not going to sound the alarm yet for that."

Price pressure at the high end has not applied to homes in the $600,000-$700,000 range, he said. "The tax issue may affect the market but I think it's too early to tell."

One homeowner trying to sell a property overlooking the Hudson River said that his real-estate agent is furious that property-cap price pressure is happening, believing it is due more to fear than reality.

"Still he told me that I needed to take it into account," said the Ossining resident.

Some communities are considering a tax-cap work-around recommended by New York State officials. The Village of Scarsdale, for example, has set up a charitable fund to accept tax donations in exchange for local property tax credits, but warns residents it could be disallowed.

SEE: New Way To Pay Rye Property Taxes Set Up

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