NYC assesses the same dollar of very differently depending on what kind of property it sits on. This is the single biggest structural equity story in the property tax system, and it's set entirely by state law.
Class 1 (1-3 family homes) assesses at ~6% of market value, vs Class 2 (apartments/co-ops/condos) at ~45% and Class 4 (commercial) at ~45% — a structural gap set by NY State's assessment-ratio caps (RPTL 1805), not by market conditions.
Assessed value as a share of market value — the fraction the tax rate is actually calculated against
The same class-level gap holds almost perfectly flat across every borough — this is a statutory rule (), not a borough-by-borough market effect.
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| Tax class | Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens | Bronx | Staten Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | 6.0% | 6.0% | 6.0% | 6.0% | 6.0% |
| Class 2 | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% |
| Class 3 | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% | — | — |
| Class 4 | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% | 45.0% |
Cell shading is a magnitude scale (darker = higher effective assessment ratio) — the pattern is nearly flat across all five boroughs within each class, confirming this is a statutory rule, not a borough-specific market effect.
It isn't that Class 1 homes are worth less relative to their assessments for market reasons — it's that state law puts a hard annual cap on how much a Class 1 property's assessed value is allowed to increase, even when its market value jumps. Classes 2 and 4 have no such cap, so their assessments track market value far more closely, year after year, compounding the gap over decades.
Assessed value, at the citywide Class 1 ratio (6.0%)
Assessed value, at the citywide Class 2 ratio (45.0%)
In other words: a $1M single-family home and a $1M slice of a condo or rental building start from the same market value, but the home's owner is taxed on roughly 13% as much assessed value as the condo/rental slice.
Assessed at a fraction of market value, capped by RPTL §1805 — the class that benefits most from the cap in dollar terms, since it's also the largest class by lot count (705,880 lots).
No annual cap — assessments move with market value, so co-op, condo, and rental owners are assessed on a share of value roughly 750% the size of a Class 1 owner's.