Renters bear burden of property taxes: study

New York City renters pay a greater share of property taxes than homeowners, Crain’s reported, citing a new study conducted by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. “It’s not apparent because the property tax is hidden to renters,” Ingrid Gould Ellen, co-director of the Furman Center, told Crain’s. “Most [renters] don’t have a sense how much they are paying toward taxes.”

In general, the study report shows, owners of large apartment buildings in the city have a greater property tax burden than owners of buildings that can house one-to-three family homes, while some co-ops and condominium buildings pay the same tax rate.

The tax rate for apartment buildings, which the study defines as any property’s final tax liability divided by its fair market value, is 4 percent. For one-to-three family homes, it’s 0.6 percent.

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Apartment buildings comprise 36 percent of New York City’s tax revenue, Crain’s wrote. The study reports that some co-op and condominium apartment buildings pay the same tax rates as one-to-three family homes. With renters making up 69.7 percent of city housing, the bulk of taxes are paid by renters.

Apartment buildings in Washington Heights and Inwood have the highest tax rate of 4.3 percent. The other top five neighborhoods include Midtown, Stuyvesant Town and the Upper East Side, but their tax rates are not listed. [Crain’s]