Property taxes soar by double the legal limit to a new all-time high

🏠 Property taxes hit record highs in New Jersey.

🏠 Hundreds of towns blew past tax caps despite legal guardrails.

🏠 Some communities were crushed by 20% hikes.

New Jersey ignored its own guardrails for property tax increases last year, making it more expensive than ever to keep the home you own.

In 2025, the state collected over $36 billion in property taxes. That's up from $34.6 billion one year earlier. Around 52% of that money went to New Jersey schools.

Property taxes skyrocketed by a painful 5%, according to brand new data from the Department of Community Affairs. It's the latest gut punch for residents who saw ballooning utility costs, a higher gas tax, and a slew of other new taxes in the same year.

The statewide average property tax bill rose to $10,570. That's a jump of nearly $500 from the previous high of $10,095 a year earlier, which was the first time the average rose to five figures.

Since 2010, there's been a 2% cap on property tax hikes for each New Jersey town with exceptions for healthcare and pension costs. But there's a relatively new exception for municipalities that lost school funding. They can increase the bill by up to 9.9% without taxpayer approval.

Double-digit tax hikes slam homeowners in dozens of towns

Compared to last year, even fewer New Jersey towns saw their property taxes go down. A mere 21 towns saw no change or a decrease in their bills. It was far more common to see hikes in the double-digits, blowing past even the new 9.9% cap for some towns.

In 40 New Jersey towns, the average bill increased by more than 10%. And 155 towns had their bills go up by more than 5%.

A nauseating 20% average property tax increase was felt in three towns: Asbury Park, Millstone Borough, and Chesilhurst. Asbury Park collected $58.2 million in property taxes, and 56% of that revenue went to schools.

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The highest bill in the state goes to Tavistock, which last year had an average property tax bill of $38,387 — that's greater than what a minimum wage worker in New Jersey would make in a year if they worked 40 hours a week. Not far off, 22 other towns had average bills of at least $20,000.

Property taxes increased in 31 towns by $1,000 or more. By pure dollar amount, the biggest increase was in Deal, the super-wealthy Monmouth County shore town.

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