County Taxes Increase in 9 Towns, Included in the 9, Gloucester City and Brooklawn

source www.courierpostonline.com

The projected tax decrease is based on an equalized tax rate, which means tax rates will vary depending on municipality. As it stands, 22 of the county's 37 municipalities would get a county tax reduction, six would see county taxes stay the same and nine would receive a county tax increase. Those towns are Brooklawn, Gloucester City, Laurel Springs, Lawnside, Lindenwold, Pennsauken, Stratford, Voorhees and Woodlynne.

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Comments

[Bill Labbree, Jr.]

The increased property values in town are a result of the marketplace. Over the last couple of years as values in the region increased due to the "real estate boom", other towns became less affordable for buyers. Therefore, good towns with low prices like Gloucester City & Brooklawn attracted buyers who would have normally bought elsewhere. At the same time, the market became a seller's market and sellers could demand higher prices that were still lower than many surrounding towns. If you look at the statistics, I'm sure you will find that the prices in Gloucester and Brooklawn did not really start to rise until AFTER prices rose in surrounding towns. Several years ago prices were significantly lower in town than these other towns so there was more room for them to climb. With the turn-around in the market we will now see a reduction in values in Gloucester City & Brooklawn, but it will not be as big a loss as in other towns with higher values.

The Kain-Gorman policy was to increase property values. This is what you get from increased property values unless of course you sold and moved to a more stable town. Carpetbagger Maley sold them on that idea. Anybody disagree?

[Bill Labbree, Jr.]

Sue,
The home values in those towns rose at a greater rate than the other towns in the county. The tax rate for each town is determined by its value compared to the other towns. This is supposed to make the county tax more equitable for each town.

Bill Labbree, Jr.

[Sue]

I read this article in the Courier Post today but the story did not give a reason as to why the taxes would go up in 9 towns but go down or stay the same in all the other towns. I would like to know why Gloucester is one of the towns where taxes are going up??