This. This was very confusing to me when I lived in New York. The property tax rate is terrifying (19 percent annually???), but then you realize that the basis

This. This was very confusing to me when I lived in New York. The property tax rate is terrifying (19 percent annually???), but then you realize that the basis for each property is reduced by a fudge factor such that the effective rate is in the same range that it is in other places. I suspect that the reason that they do this is to stop people from hassling the city constantly about their assessment. In places like MA, where they make an honest attempt to keep assessments close to 1:1 on value (mine changed annually in the time that I owned the house, often going DOWN -- this was 2007-2010), people are constantly appealing their valuations.