New Jersey Real Estate Digest: Purchase Your Home With Education in Mind

It is desperate times for New Jersey's school funding according to an article that appear in Tuesday's Times of Trenton entitled "These are desperate times for state's school funding". What that means to buyers is they must buy with their education needs in mind. For example, if you are going to start a family in the next ten years or have school age children then purchasing in a good school district should be a consideration. The money you pay in property taxes will allow you children to go to the neighborhood school rather than having to pay fees to a boarding or private school. Empty nesters can look for home without making the educational system a primary consideration, instead they may look primarily at property taxes.

Whether just purchasing your first home or down-sizing to a smaller home interest in property taxes. The legislature is meeting in special session to examine how to lower property taxes. The first panel was told today that the best option to look at were income and sale taxes. Here's a link to the story:

First property tax panel told income, sales taxes best options

Keeping track of what New Jersey legislature comes up with in the guise of property tax relief is something every New Jersey resident needs to follow. It is not like there are a lot of other places to find the money needed to fund schools and municpal services. That New Jersey has 566 municpalities is something the legislature should look at too. Hopewell township is seeking to consolidate with its neighbors but unfortunately the first the neighboring boroughs hear about the plan was in the media.

Hopewell Twp. eyes consolidation plans

It begs to question how serious the mayor of Hopewell could have been to not talk to the neighboring mayors prior to the media. Still more municipalities are going to have find there own workable solutions if they don't want the to leave it up the the state.

All of these factors will contribute to where you decide to make you home in varying degrees. Having the information available to you is probably easiest if you consult your real estate professional or are willing to spend some time doing some research. Either way what happens with property taxes right now has to do with school system needs. It may not be that way in the near future.