Falling real estate tax revenue leads MTA to delay improvements

Subway riders will no doubt be upset that the MTA says it must be delay $30 million in planned improvements because real estate tax revenues were lower than expected, but the larger implications are the troubling signs for the city’s real estate market. The MTA’s revenue from mortgage and transfer taxes so far this year is $306 million, $21 million below its forecast. Revenues from February transactions were half of their year-ago level. All four taxes on sales of commercial property and residential and commercial mortgages drew lower revenues last month, which the MTA called unusual. The tax on residential mortgages fell the most, dropping to its lowest one-month level since January 2002.