The Bergen County market
Value changes over short distances in Bergen County more sharply than in most of New Jersey. That is the working problem here.
The eastern boroughs along the Hudson — Fort Lee, Cliffside Park, Edgewater — are high-rise condominium markets. View, floor, exposure and monthly common charges do more of the work than square footage does.
Move west and the same county becomes detached houses on wooded lots in Ridgewood, Wyckoff and Upper Saddle River. Different property type, different approach, different comparables.
The practical consequence is that a radius search fails here. Two colonials a mile apart can sit in different school districts, at different distances from a rail station, under different municipal tax rates.
Bergen also carries a substantial amount of two-family stock in its southern and eastern boroughs. Those are income properties and get an income approach — not a larger-house adjustment.
Appealing a Bergen County assessment
Appeals are filed with the Bergen County Board of Taxation. The filing deadline is April 1, moving to May 1 in any municipality that implemented a revaluation or reassessment for the tax year.
The appraisal supporting the appeal needs an effective date of October 1 of the pre-tax year — not today's date — and the board applies the Chapter 123 Common Level Range, which can mean no reduction even where the property is worth less than its assessment. How the Chapter 123 test actually works .
Every Bergen County municipality has its own certified average ratio, and it decides the outcome before any appraisal is commissioned. The Chapter 123 calculator works out where a given assessment lands — including whether an appeal would raise it.
Municipalities served in Bergen County
Hackensack · Paramus · Fort Lee · Englewood · Teaneck · Bergenfield · Fair Lawn · Garfield · Lodi · Mahwah · Ridgewood · Wyckoff · Alpine · Allendale · Bogota · Carlstadt · Cliffside Park · Closter · Cresskill · Demarest · Dumont · Elmwood Park · Emerson · East Rutherford · Franklin Lakes · Glen Rock · Hasbrouck Heights · Haworth · Hillsdale · Ho-Ho-Kus · Leonia · Little Ferry · Lyndhurst · Maywood · Midland Park · Montvale · Moonachie · New Milford · North Arlington · Northvale · Norwood · Oakland · Old Tappan · Oradell · Palisades Park · Park Ridge · Ramsey · Ridgefield · Ridgefield Park · River Edge · River Vale · Rochelle Park · Rutherford · Saddle Brook · Saddle River · South Hackensack · Tenafly · Teterboro · Upper Saddle River · Waldwick · Wallington · Washington Township · Westwood · Wood-Ridge · Woodcliff Lake