Feb

15

Long Island Real Estate Market: Priced Too High To Compete?

Filed Under Buyers, Sellers, Sellers & Buyers, Taxing Matters |

If you were to think about the 50 states of America as 50 independent businesses, vying for buyers to purchase homes, become gainfully employed, open businesses, volunteer at local charity organizations, make families and contribute to the overall social and economic welfare of the state, one might consider Long Island as part of a declining company which is losing market share every quarter.

How? Well if we were to think of property taxation as the cost of goods (the goods being homes in the area), then we’ll see that Long Island Politicians are pricing us clear out of the market.

Think about this. If McDonald’s hamburgers cost .89 cents in West Babylon and cost $9.99 in Babylon, where are the customers going to buy their hamburger? So now let’s look at the market competition of two counties, one county in North Carolina and Suffolk County here on Long Island. In Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, the average annual taxes are about $1000. That’s not $1000 a month, that’s per year. Contrast this with Suffolk County where the average annual tax (for the sake of argument) exceeds $5000 annually, or over $400 a month.

Where is everyone going to move? Long Island or North Carolina? According to a study done by www.longislandindex.org, click here, Long Island homeowners rate the tax problem as very serious. Yet the politicians will not actually address this problem. They talk more about “affordable housing”, which translates to managing the free market and telling companies how much something can cost.

According to an article in the Suffolk Life, entitled, State Bill To Address Affordable Housing On LI, so many of the politicians talk about “creating” affordable housing. The entire article ultimately fails to address the issue - what about people who don’t want a government handout? What about the people who don’t want “affordable housing”? Take away the $1000 a month my friend pays for his taxes in Miller Place, and he and his family of four can live much better off than they currently are, struggling to pay the monthly tax bill.

I’ll be posting more on this topic along with contact information for my viewers to get in touch with their local and state government officials. We all need to come together and figure out the property tax mess we’ve become wrapped up in due to overspending and government mismanagement.

(c) Copyright 2008, www.tommcgiveron.com

By Tom McGiveron


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