It’s no big secret that the Garden State is an expensive place to live if you want to own a home.
The state routinely ranks among the highest in the nation when it comes to property taxes. Last year, four of the seven counties with the highest median payments in the U.S. were located in New Jersey.
Some experts have pointed out that a high tax bill doesn't necessarily mean a homeowner is getting ripped off – it depends on what you get for the money.
“While no taxpayers in high-tax jurisdictions will be celebrating their yearly payments, it's worth noting that property taxes are largely rooted in the ‘benefit principle’ of government finance – the people paying the bills are most often the ones benefiting from the services,” researchers from The Tax Foundation nonprofit recently wrote.
It’s also worth noting that many New Jersey homeowners were able to chop away a significant portion of their taxes by applying deductions and credits. Statewide, there were a whopping 2.37 million property tax deductions logged in 2020, with an average deduction of $5,451.
Property taxes in New Jersey are made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. Last year, the average property owner paid roughly 52.9 percent of their total for school taxes, 29.4 percent for municipal taxes and 17.8 percent for county taxes.
Out of 565 municipalities in the state, the following Cape May County towns stood out for being near the lowest average tax bill:
469. West Cape May Borough Cape May 6,035
491. Wildwood City Cape May 5,654
511. Sea Isle City Cape May 5,199
518. Wildwood Crest Borough Cape May 5,090
534. Cape May Point Borough Cape May 4,582
535. Middle Township Cape May 4,578
538. West Wildwood Borough Cape May 4,482
542. North Wildwood City Cape May 4,326
548. Lower Township Cape May 4,217
557. Dennis Township Cape May 3,253
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