At least in my experience, the assessed values for 4+ unit buildings tend to be substantially lower than 45% of true market value. Property tax rates in NYC ar

At least in my experience, the assessed values for 4+ unit buildings tend to be substantially lower than 45% of true market value. Property tax rates in NYC are actually not too terrible. I've owned homes in NYC as well as northern NJ, and also recently spent a lot of time looking at condos in the NYC area. Tax rates in northern NJ are pretty much always higher than NYC -- NJ is known as one of the states with highest property tax rates. Yet, typical property tax bill for a condo in northern NJ amounts to around 0.8-1.2%/year of the true market value of a property. In NYC it'll usually be under 1% of true market value for a 4+ unit building, even with no abatement. And for a 1-3 unit building it's a tiny fraction of this. Also consider that property tax payments are tax-deductible federally... and that property value here is rising rapidly, so the value of your investment is increasing by a dollar amount that may exceed the cost of taxes + maintenance/common charges + mortgage. Sites like StreetEasy are very helpful for seeing the tax rates for homes on the market -- I've personally never seen any with rates nearly as high as suggested in your article. You can also look at quarterly reports from major brokerages to get a good sense of cost per square foot of condos and coops in various neighborhoods, and see how quickly they are rising in recent years.