By: Andrew Cuadra , Class of 2024
The Heights is a neighborhood located in the northern part of Jersey City. The heart of the neighborhood, Central Avenue, is home to dozens of small businesses, chain stores like Burger King, McDonalds, Wonder Bagels, a flower shop and restaurants. The Heights, which Forbes Magazine named one of the neighborhoods to watch, is also home to six public schools, and three public parks. The Heights has one of the largest diverse populations in the city.
Sebastian Navas-Quevedo, senior computer science major, and information technology minor at New Jersey City University, has lived in the Heights area since 2002.
“Growing up, I’ve always enjoyed living in this neighborhood,” said Navas-Quevedo. “Living close to Central Avenue, whenever I hang out with my friends, we always go to our favorite restaurants like Pizza Masters, Noches de Colombia, and Dulce de Leche.”
However, the growing concern that residents have faced during the last decade is the rising property taxes. In 2023, property taxes had a 6% increase on top of the unprecedented 32% increase in 2022’s tax rate.
Ahmad Hussein, junior accounting major and business law minor at Saint Peter’s University, has lived in the Heights area since 2006. His parents, like many long-time homeowners are now facing bigger tax bills as their properties go up in value.
“They (his parents) lived there for about 40 years. The house cost about $90,000 when they bought it back in 1984,” said Hussein. “If they wanted to sell it today it’s worth on average $750,000 according to online sources like Zillow. Over the last five years, my parents had to pay about $2,500 more in taxes. This caused my parents to be more careful with our finances, we couldn’t afford to go on any summer vacations for the foreseeable future until they get back on track.”
According to students at Saint Peter’s who assessed the New Jersey’s Assessments Database from October 1, 2022- September 30, 2023, they found that property tax evaluations are rising but also more than half of the assessments are over or under-assessed.
This project is part of a collaborative effort between Prof. Brigid D’Souza’s CS-AC-157-01: MS Excel for Acct and Bus Env and Prof. Ernabel Demillo’s CU-JN-205-01: News Writing and Reporting courses.
Living in Jersey City for over 20 years with her husband and children, Prof. D’Souza voluntarily looked at the public data of how the properties of Jersey City were being assessed. She put all of this information into a personal website.
“Looking at the City’s budget is very important,” Prof. D’Souza said. The city’s mandate is governance.”
Governance is a set of principles that guide the city during the decision making process in the field of tax issues.
Dr. D’Souza added, “I have a disclaimer on my site that I do my best to avoid errors and omissions. I’m a person of one, I am doing this as a volunteer effort. No one is paying me to do this. And that’s really important. If someone was paying me to do this, I would hire extra staff to help me. I really would. This is me as a volunteer. That disclaimer is very important.
According to the data compiled by her students Grace Cujilema, sophomore marketing major, Kayla Godesky, sophomore business major, Jessica Leon, junior accounting major, and Jennifer Wong, senior business major, there were 214 properties from the Heights that were assessed.
Cuijilema said, “I was able to compile these numbers with the help of Professor D’Souza as well as the information gathered by my team and I regarding New Jersey’s Assessments Database and download records for Jersey City. We were able to gather and place all the data into an organized excel spreadsheet.”
Wong mentioned that according to the data, out of about 150 usable sales in the Heights area, about 20 properties were over assessed, and about 30 properties were under assessed.
If the assessment is out of date, people who own over-assessed properties are paying more taxes than they should and those who own under-assessed properties may be paying lower taxes than they should.
An example of an over-assessed property would be if the total assessed value is $909,700 but the sale price for this property is $575,000.
Hussein said, “Over the last five years, I’ve seen plenty of my old neighbors leave the Heights because they can no longer afford to live in their property or pay the rising rent prices in their apartments. And it’s sad to see the area change over and over again.”
When developers tear down buildings and they build these new expensive apartments, this may mean families in the Heights can no longer afford to live in the area sell their properties.
Vicente Cuadra and Patricia Cuadra moved to the Heights back in 2004 and bought a property for around $220,000. Because of the rising property prices, they left the Heights in 2019 and sold their property for $539,900. In 2021, after leaving the house behind, developers tore down the property and rebuilt it into a luxury high-rise apartment complex.
“After we left the Heights and moved to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, the developers contacted me and told me that they were planning on tearing down the property and building a new luxury apartment,” said Cuadra. “At the end of the day, we made the right decision to leave the neighborhood for our own good.”
Dr. Anna Brown, a social justice professor at Saint Peter’s, has lived in Jersey City since 2011. Her monthly expenses went up because of higher property tax, and paying for the apartment repairs. Dr. Brown was forced to pay a lot more extra money in order to be able to stay in the building. She talks about needing roommates in order to survive living in her apartment.
“I had to come up with $800 more per month to live in my apartment. This is why people are moving out of Jersey City,” said Dr. Brown. “So the only reason I’m able to hang on is because I have two roommates. It’s only a two bedroom apartment basically. So one person is in what should be the living room reconfigured as a bedroom. How else can you afford something like that?”
Due to the rise of property taxes in her apartment, she witnessed neighbors come and go and she talks about the mental health toll it has had on residences.
“In times of great distress, if you don’t know anybody, you’re on your own. This is not the time to be alone. We need community, we need neighbors, we need people that work togethers, we need people that work together. It really cuts down on human relationships, and it’s sad. Humans are not built this way. We’re social animals,” said Dr. Brown.