PRESS RELEASE

(January, 2006) – High taxes forced Jack and Stephanie Crowley to move from their shore-front home to a less pricey place — four houses up Seaview Avenue in Branford from the 2,200-square-foot house they lived in for 13 years.

Property revaluation has been a sore point for many who have found an increase — in some cases a doubling or tripling — of their taxes in recent years.

The sharpest edge of this dynamic is along the waterfront, where owners often find their houses assessed for far more than those farther inland. While revaluation is theoretically revenue neutral, highly sought-after properties, such as those along the water, have skyrocketed above the average increase.

One neighborhood wrestling with this reality is Hotchkiss Grove in Branford.

"We would have stayed in the house. It’s a thin geographical line that has got creamed," said Jack Crowley, 72, whose yearly taxes jumped from $8,400 to more than $11,000, too much on the Crowleys’ fixed incomes.

The family of Jay J. Webb, 66, has owned a Hotchkiss Grove cottage since 1923 and has been active in the neighborhood association representing about 240 area houses.

"What’s happened since the last revaluation is the values placed on the waterfront have absolutely skyrocketed," he said. "We have families who clearly are being driven out."

He said some residents’ taxes have jumped from $7,000 to $20,000 yearly. Some sell, others refinance or cut back on spending. It especially challenges the elderly and retired.

According to H. Pearce Co. Realtors in North Haven, 112 properties on or close to the water in Branford were sold in 2000. That fell to 80 the next year before climbing to 168 on the market in 2005. Average taxes have gone up from $6,986 in 2000 to $10,935 in 2005.

Barbara Pearce, president of H. Pearce, sees a lot of problems with the current system.

"You can see the spike (in sales) following the reassessment town by town," she said. "There are people who feel they have to sell their homes because of the taxes."

She knows of numerous property owners charged $50,000 to $60,000 a year in property taxes. In some towns, some of the top 10 taxpayers are actually private citizens, she said.

In particular, she listed Middle Beach Road in Madison, where a number of houses sold following the reassessment cycle. "I don’t know if its good for the town to see for sale signs everywhere," she said. "Eventually, taxes will hurt the worth of the houses."

Some residents of Middle Beach Road wryly refer to the stretch as "The Best Business in Madison" because of the taxes they pay. Close to 100 residents have taken the town to civil court over their assessments.

Marilyn Maurer, who has been living with her husband, Charles, at 121 Middle Beach Road for about 50 years, is confident a decision will go their way. Otherwise, they could be forced out with a tax bill of $18,000 a year. "It’s very hard to have to change," she said, noting that her husband is blind.

An inland resident, Ron Hick, who was roller-skating past Long Island Sound on a brisk morning, said he understands how valuable land needs to be taxed appropriately, but doesn’t consider it fair, as many are summer homes without children in the school district.

Rhoda Winik, an agent with William Raveis Real Estate in Guilford, isn’t sure that taxes are behind all the sales.

"I honestly have not seen a blitz of people putting houses on the market because of taxes," she said. "They talk about it, but I don’t see them doing it."

She described the red-hot housing market as the result of a combination of factors, including taxes, downsizing families, even heating costs.

Winik doesn’t consider the skyrocketing costs on the waterfront as anything new. "The differential has always been outrageous," she said, referring to a 1,500-square-foot waterfront condo in Branford that she bought in 1971 for $55,000. Further inland, similar homes were going for $17,000 or $18,000. Her home is now worth $460,000, she said.

"The problem is that there isn’t enough land around," she said. "You get any condo that just faces the water and it’s gone."

Seeking a way to avoid the tax spikes, Webb looks to California and Florida, where municipalities don’t reassess property until it’s sold. That, he believes, is a better system, in which homeowners are subjected to tax-rate changes, but not revaluation fluctuations.

"When all of a sudden it goes through an abnormal, drastic change, that’s not nearly so fair," he said.

Thomas doesn’t support this concept, nor does he imagine Connecticut taxpayers would. Quoting Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, he said it would "offend a policy of equal tax treatment for taxpayers in similar situations."

"Frozen" taxes allow home-owning families to spend more and pass financial benefits on to their children, he said. Longtime owners would unfairly benefit, paying less to finance services than newcomers.

Assessor Dan Thomas of Milford, which is undergoing revaluation this year, said people enjoy the property appreciation that allows them to sell for ever greater amounts — one Seaview Avenue resident listed his 2,250-square-foot house at $1.295 million. On the flip side, they aren’t ready to pay the taxes, he noted.

H. Pearce Company REALTORS® is a full-service real estate company with more than 140 agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline. Corporate and Industrial & Commercial offices are located in North Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com.