Both Seaside Park and Lavallette Are Facing Revaluation Orders

West Point Island, Lavallette. (Photo Credit: TopTenRealEstateDeals.com)

Two island communities are being forced to prepare for revaluations despite complaints from local officials about their necessity.

Both Lavallette and Seaside Park have received letters from Ocean County advising of the need for revaluations, elected officials in both towns announced over the past week.

“Our level of assessment is lower than they would accept,” said Lavallette Mayor Walter LaCicero, adding that the average assessed value of the borough’s collective properties is about 68 percent of their market value.

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“There are towns below 60 percent,” he said. “We’re nowhere near the bottom, and I know we’re getting [notices] while some other towns are not. But we’ll put up a bit of a fight since we did a revaluation less than five years ago.”

Similarly, Seaside Park is dealing with the potential for a revaluation in the near future.

Council President Marty Wilk said the valuation of the borough’s real estate stock was about $6,869,000 off.

“The borough received a notification from the county that it may order a district-wide revaluation in the near future,” he said.

Fortunately, the relatively small amount by which the borough’s valuations have grown should not drive county property taxes up in any significant way, the borough’s Chief Financial Officer said during a council meeting last week.

While revaluations do not change the actual amount of taxation a municipality collects from residents to operate, they can have an impact on residents whose homes are not assessed close to their market value. Some residents also oppose inspections of their properties by appraisers.

Though not a hard rule, most officials agree that in the case of a revaluation, about a third of property owners see a tax decrease, a third see an increase, and a third remain taxed at about the same level as before the revaluation was performed.