Property Tax New York: STAR, County Rates, and Grievance Rules for 2027

The typical New York homeowner pays $6,582 a year on a home worth $423,800, an effective property tax rate of 1.55 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 five-year survey. Among published counties it runs from 0.71 percent in Brooklyn (Kings County) to 2.92 percent in Allegany County. This New York property tax calculator covers all 62 counties, with the five city boroughs listed by name, and multiplies your figure by the share of value owners in your county actually pay. Enter what the home would sell for, not the assessed value on your roll, because most New York assessments are a fraction of market value.

STAR First: The School Relief Almost Every Owner Should Check

School levies are usually the largest line on a New York bill, and the School Tax Relief program (STAR) is the state’s main answer. It comes in two forms. Owners who have held the exemption continuously keep it as a reduction on the school bill, and its savings cannot rise from year to year. Everyone else gets the STAR credit, a check from the Department of Taxation and Finance, which can grow by as much as 2 percent a year. The Tax Department states plainly that the exemption is no longer available to new homeowners.

Basic STAR removes the first $30,000 of full value from school taxation, adjusted by the local equalization rate. Enhanced STAR, for owners 65 and older, uses a base of $88,500 for the 2026-27 school year. Each $10 per $1,000 of full-value school rate makes the basic benefit worth about $300 and the enhanced one about $885.

Income limits differ by version: $500,000 or less for the Basic credit, $250,000 or less for the Basic exemption, and for Enhanced STAR $110,750 or less for 2026 and $113,550 or less for 2027. Income comes from the return two years back (2024 income for 2026 benefits). The home must be an eligible owner’s primary residence.

The recent change matters for anyone near 65: beginning in 2026, seniors no longer apply to the local assessor for the Enhanced exemption when they turn 65; the Tax Department upgrades them. One resident owner, of any relationship, now needs to be 65 by December 31 of the benefit year, and only resident owners’ and resident spouses’ income counts.

Fractional Assessments, Local Levies, and the 2 Percent Cap

New York has no statewide assessment ratio. Each city and town assessor sets its own level of assessment, and the Office of Real Property Tax Services publishes equalization rates so that counties and school districts, which cross municipal lines, can split levies fairly. Your bill is taxable assessment, after exemptions, times each jurisdiction’s rate per $1,000 of assessed value. A low assessment level pairs small assessed values with large rates, so the assessed number alone says little. That is why the calculator asks for market value, and why tools that apply a statewide percentage to an assessed figure can miss badly.

Schools, counties, towns, cities, villages and special districts each adopt a budget, subtract other revenue, and divide the remaining levy by taxable value. School budgets go to voters the third Tuesday in May. Since 2012 the property tax cap has limited annual levy growth to 2 percent or inflation, whichever is lower, for school districts and local governments outside New York City. On July 15, 2026, the State Comptroller put the 2027 inflation factor for calendar-year governments at 3.13 percent, so their allowable growth stays at 2 percent. Overrides are allowed, so a levy can still rise faster.

County and Borough Rates, Brooklyn to Allegany

On the 2024 five-year figures, the lowest published ratios are all in the city: Brooklyn at 0.71 percent, Queens at 0.87, and Staten Island (Richmond County) at 0.92. Hamilton is lowest upstate at 1.00, then the Bronx at 1.03. At the top, Allegany leads at 2.92 percent, then Orleans at 2.72, Cattaraugus at 2.64, and Monroe at 2.63. Across all 62 rows the middle county sits at 2.05 percent, above the statewide 1.55 because the populous boroughs pull the state figure down.

Orange County has the largest published median bill, $8,494 on a $387,900 median value. Six counties are shown as estimates: Nassau (1.85 percent), Putnam (2.30), Rockland (2.06), Suffolk (1.90), Westchester (1.97) and Manhattan (0.92). The Census reports their median bill only as “$10,000 or more,” so those rows are modeled from Census microdata or county totals and are left out of the rankings above.

Two worked examples from the calculator’s data:

• Monroe County, $250,000 home: $250,000 times 2.63 percent is $6,575 a year, or $547.92 a month, which is $959 above the county’s $5,616 median bill.
• Queens, $750,000 home: $750,000 times 0.87 percent is $6,525 a year, or $543.75 a month, $228 above the borough’s $6,297 median.

The same $300,000 house works out to $8,760 a year at Allegany’s ratio and $2,130 at Brooklyn’s.

New York City: Tax Classes, Caps, and Co-ops

In the city, one to three family homes fall in Class 1, assessed at 6 percent of market value, and their assessed value may rise no more than 6 percent a year and 20 percent over five years. The Class 1 rate for tax year 2026 is 19.843 percent of assessed value. A $900,000 Queens house assessed at the full 6 percent would face about $10,715 before exemptions; the caps often hold assessed values well below that, which helps explain the borough’s 0.87 percent Census ratio. Bills on assessed values of $250,000 or less are due quarterly, on July 1, October 1, January 1 and April 1; larger ones are due July 1 and January 1.

Co-ops add a wrinkle: the building pays the bill and folds it into maintenance, so many shareholders report paying nothing. The Census median counts only owners who report a payment, while the value median counts everyone, so in the boroughs the ratio can overstate what a typical household sees. In Manhattan about a quarter of owners report no separate bill, which is why its row is the least certain in the calculator.

Grievance Day, the Board of Assessment Review, and SCAR

In most communities the tentative roll is filed May 1, based on value as of July 1 of the prior year. To contest, file Form RP-524 with the assessor or the Board of Assessment Review by Grievance Day, usually the fourth Tuesday in May; a mailed form must arrive by that day. Exceptions: Suffolk towns meet the third Tuesday in May, Westchester towns the third Tuesday in June, and assessing villages usually the third Tuesday in February. Nassau complaints are due March 1. City owners go to the New York City Tax Commission by March 15 for Class 1 and March 1 for other property.

If the board denies relief, owners of an owner-occupied one, two or three family home used only as a residence can petition for Small Claims Assessment Review within 30 days after the final roll is filed, usually July 1, or by October 25 in the city. The fee is $30. Other owners use a tax certiorari case in State Supreme Court.

Senior and Veterans Exemptions

The senior citizens exemption lets each taxing jurisdiction cut the taxable assessment by as much as 50 percent for owners 65 and older. Each sets its own income ceiling, anywhere from $3,000 to $50,000 for the full 50 percent, and may phase in smaller percentages above that. The alternative veterans exemption removes 15 percent of assessed value for wartime service, 10 percent more for combat zone service, and half the veteran’s disability rating, subject to the statute’s dollar ceilings; it reaches school taxes only where the district adopts it. Applications are generally due by the taxable status date, March 1 in most places.

September and January Bills, and Unpaid Taxes

Outside the city, school bills (often with library levies) usually arrive in early September, and county and town bills with special district charges follow in early January. Due dates and installments vary, so read each bill. Unpaid taxes become a lien, and under Article 11 of the Real Property Tax Law the owner generally has two years to redeem before foreclosure, which a county may extend to three or four years for residential property.

What 2027 Brings

The Enhanced STAR income limit rises to $113,550 for 2027 benefits, and the 2 percent ceiling holds for calendar-year levies. County ratios here come from the ACS 2024 five-year release (surveys from 2020 through 2024), refreshed each December when the Census publishes the next set.

Sources: Census Bureau tables B25103 and B25077, 2024 five-year American Community Survey; New York State Department of Taxation and Finance STAR and property tax guidance; Office of the State Comptroller property tax cap release of July 15, 2026; New York City Department of Finance; Real Property Tax Law sections 458-a and 730. Verify your assessment with your local assessor and your bill with your receiver of taxes or the NYC Department of Finance.