New York City’s Puzzling Property Taxes Put Squeeze on Owners

New York City’s property tax system favors single-family homeowners over renters or owners of commercial buildings, and often penalizes those who own low- and moderate-income condos and co-ops.

Bloomberg Tax used public records law to access homeowner appeals for relief sent to a special commission studying potential changes. Then we interviewed several homeowners, who described what the arcane tax system means for them.

The resulting interactive, published in conjunction with Bloomberg CityLab, explores the impact of the city’s main revenue stream from the perspective of homeowners from Queens to Brooklyn, Staten Island to Manhattan.

And this video examines how the city got here and some of the entrenched obstacles to change.

Scroll below for a preview of some of the homeowners profiled in the interactive.

“Are you trying to wait for me to die?” — Kathleen Cox

Mistakes over a misclassified driveway next to Kathleen Cox’s home in Jamaica, Queens, left her with a bill from the city topping $400,000 in back taxes. The municipal bus driver spent years trying to find a resolution.

Photographer: Andrew Satter/Bloomberg Industry Group

(Go to interactive)
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“I don’t want to move, but if they keep raising our taxes, we’re gonna have no choice.” — Erik Frankel

Because of a quirk in city law, there’s no cap on how high taxes can go on Erik Frankel’s store and small apartment in an economically depressed block of Brooklyn, which houses two porn shops and two churches.

Photographer: Andrew Satter/Bloomberg Industry Group

(Go to interactive)

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“No one can answer our questions.” — Elena Imperato

Annual taxes on the Staten Island co-op Elena Imperato manages have gone from $81,000 in 2006 to $327,000 today.

Photographer: Andrew Satter/Bloomberg Industry Group

(Go to interactive)