Match Day 2014. Welcoming New Residents to Rochester, NY

Match Day is the annual event where medical students around the country learn where they will spend the next four to seven years of their lives completing residencies.  And so this morning, dozens of new, young doctors learned that they will call Rochester, NY home for the short term and the University of Rochester Medical Center will be their place of both employment and learning.

These young doctors and their families will need to find a new home and there are many excellent choices in a wide variety of price brackets, all close to the U of R Medical Center.  Here is a breakdown of a few options, but every hour it seems something new is listed and something else goes pending.  Feel free to register with my website to receive e-mail alerts:  www.RochestersBestHomes.com



If you are looking for an excellent school district plus a carefree lifestyle (i.e., someone else cuts the grass and plows the snow) maybe a townhouse is a good choice for you.  200 Lac Kine Drive is offered at $164,000 and it is in excellent condition with a stunning interior.  The home has 2 bedrooms plus a loft, and an attached 2 car garage.  All kitchen appliances are included.  For photos and details, chick here:  www.200LacKine.com.


If you prefer to be in quick walking distance to the medical center, 950 Mt. Hope Avenue offers 3 bedrooms, one bath plus a one car garage. This home is located directly across from the historic Mt. Hope Cemetery.  More information can be found at  www.950MtHope.com .


There are more economical options for medical students willing to travel across the Genesee River.  Rochester's 19th Ward is located less than a half mile from the medical center and features beautiful yet remarkably affordable homes.  As an example, 118 Virginia Ave, a 3 bedroom colonial with one bath, fenced back yard with a deck and garage, is being offered for less than $70,000.  Complete details at  www.118Virginia.com.

To schedule an appointment at any of these or other properties near the University of Rochester, don't hesitate to give me a call at 585-414-5513 or visit my site at www.RochestersBestHomes.com

Mary Shelsby
Licensed Real Estate Sales Person
ReMax Realty Group

Feb 1st Deadline for Sr Citizen STAR Tax Exemption.

If you are a senior citizen, aged 65 or older and own and occupy a house in the city of Rochester, you may qualify for a reduction in your school taxes.  This year, the senior tax exemptions will range from a 50 percent reduction for those with 2010 incomes of $29,000 or less, to a 5 percent reduction for those who didn’t earn more than $37,400. Applications must be in the City Assessor's Office by Feb. 1, 2012.  


Seniors renewing should already have received applications in the mail. Additional applications can be obtained by calling the City Assessor’s Office at 428-6994, going to City Hall at 30 Church St., Rm. 101A, or by downloading the application at www.cityofrochester.gov/assessment and clicking on “Residential Property Exemptions” in the menu to the left. 

City Assessor Thomas G. Huonker reminds residents that Enhanced STAR, New York’s school tax cut program for seniors 65 and older, is also available. Enhanced STAR is offered in addition to the City’s Senior Property Tax exemption. Seniors will automatically receive the Enhanced STAR exemption if they are approved for the City’s Senior exemption. If a resident doesn’t qualify for the Senior exemption, he or she may still be eligible for Enhanced STAR if they did not earn more than $79,050 in 2010. The deadline for Enhanced STAR is also Feb. 1, 2012. 

Lobbyist For a Day

I spent the day in Albany yesterday with approximately 50 other Realtors from both Rochester and Buffalo to meet with several of our state legislators to discuss upcoming legislation that affects local homeowners and the real estate market.

The most important item on our agenda was the need for property tax relief. New Yorkers pay an exorbitant amount of property taxes and Western New Yorkers pay more in taxes relative to their property value than the rest of the state. For example, the New York State Comptroller's Office reports that approximate property taxes on a home in Rochester valued at $100,000 are just under $4,000. In comparison, taxes on a $100,000 home in Yonkers are less than half of that ($1,773) and in Southampton, they are almost a tenth of that ($456).

As real estate agents, we were able to give real life experiences about how homebuyers and homeowners struggle to purchase or keep their homes due to high taxes. I had a fun conversation with Assemblyman Bob Oaks (Cayuga, Oswego and Wayne Counties) telling him about trying to explain NY state property taxes with STAR deductions and STAR rebates to individuals moving here from another state. Property tax relief needs to be a top legislative priority for lawmakers!

Some of the other items we discussed was to request support of a bill that would simplify the language on the state's property condition disclosure and to vote against a bill that would restrict the availability of real property information for consumers as well as licensed real estate practitioners. If you'd like information on these bills or others that we discussed with legislators, don't hesitate to give me a call at 585-414-5513.

One of the best things about the trip yesterday was the feeling that our elected officials do want to hear from their constituents. If you'd like to contact your elected state officials, the state has put together an excellent web site that allows you to type in your address and receive a complete list of who represents you. http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/ From there, you can make a few clicks to get everything from a biography to sponsored legislation to contact information for your officials. It's pretty painless to become informed and involved through this site.

With this trip behind me, I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon and do a much better job of keeping this source of information up to date.

New York State Property Taxes

This should come as no surprise. New York homeowners pay highest property taxes in nation


According to a recent report by the Washington-based Tax Foundation, New Yorkers are saddled with the highest property tax burden in the nation. The counties paying the highest actual property taxes in the nation are Westchester and Nassau with average burdens nearing $8,000 per year. Monroe County ranks 80th in the nation with an average tax bill of $3,486.

An interesting twist to the data is that when taxes are compared to their homes' value, Monroe County ranks 5th in the nation with median real estate taxes running at 2.84% of median home values. Neighboring Orleans County tops the list!! I guess the eternal optimists in me wants to report this as good news. I mean, we could be paying more than a quarter of a million dollars for a starter home and have huge taxes too.

Anyway, I'm working with a reporter who is doing a story about the impact on the local real estate market of Governor Patterson's proposal to eliminate the STAR rebate checks. If you have some thoughts to share on this subject, either leave a comment on the blog (with contact information) or send me an e-mail at MShelsby@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Mayor Duffy Wants to Know What I Think!

No I didn't get a phone call! Or a personal letter! But I did get a survey stuck into our storm door.

It's number crunching time at Rochester's City Hall and Mayor Bob Duffy has asked for neighborhood feedback regarding fees, taxes and services.

"What are the most important services to you and your neighborhood?", the survey asks. To me, that's pretty easy. Police protection and fighting crime are utmost important to me. Keeping our streets clear of snow is also a priority and I sure feel better about our city when it is clean and clear of liter.

Next, the survey asks, "What services are nice to have, but you could live without if cuts had to be made?" That's a little more difficult question for me. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I've not been to the library in more than ten year, so that is a service I could life without. But a city without libraries, is almost as bad as cake without ice cream. My husband suggested that trash pickup be changed to every two weeks instead of every week, but I think that would be pretty stinky in the summer.

There are more questions, like "What are the City services that you and your neighbors believe you do not need?" I don't have an answer for that one. I can see what the mayor wants some advice, but hopefully he also surveyed people much smarter than I am.

I wish I had better answers for the mayor. Nonetheless, I'm glad he asked. It sure feels like he cares what I think and if I had some good ideas for him, he'd listen to them. Bob Duffy is one of the many reasons I'm glad I call Rochester home.

Buying Based on Property Taxes

"The biggest disparity between New York and the rest of the country is the property tax."

That's what the front page of today's Democrat and Chronicle reported! No sh#%t!!! I talk to people all the time that are considering relocating to New York and once they get a peak at the property taxes, well, I need to bring out the smelling salts!

Case in point, last week I got a call from Costa Rico from a gentleman considering waterfront property in the Finger Lakes. He picked out two properties, similarly priced, located about a mile apart. One has annual property taxes of approximately $8799 and the other tax bill runs about $11,500. Interestingly, the house with the lower taxes has an asking price of $11,000 more than the other and from the questions that this buyer was asking, I got the feeling that he was leaning towards the more expensive house with lower taxes.

The house with the lower taxes was assessed for approximately $90,000 less than it's competitor. The reason, it has approximately 1800 sq feet of living space compared to 2500 in the other house. Both houses have similar lots and were close in age. So, while no one likes paying higher taxes, the larger house with the lower list price is probably the better deal.

Reassessment in the City of Rochester

We got the letters in the mail several weeks ago announcing a reassessment of all residential and commercial property in the city of Rochester during the next four months. There was a neighborhood meeting last night with good information about the assessment process.

The city announced that on average, property assessments will go up 10 percent in order to have assessed values closer to market value. Of course, that fact caused many groans as most citizens thought that meant property taxes will go up 10 percent. The representative of the city assessor's office did a good job explaining that an increase in assessment doesn't automatically mean an increase in taxes. Tax rates are based on budgets and if the budget stays the same and all assessments increase the same amount, that taxes stay the same.

Of course, not all assessments will change the same amount. If that was the case, there would be no need to do the assessment. In some neighborhoods, properties are selling for less than what they were in years past and so those assessments will go down. The staff appraisers are in the process of studying recent sales in an effort to assign a fair market value and letters will be mailed in December to inform property owners of their new assessed value.

Property owners that disagree with their new assessments can request an informal hearing, which will be held December through February. If the issue is not resolved, the owner can apply for a formal hearing. THE DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR A FORMAL HEARING IS MARCH, 18, 2008 --NO EXCEPTIONS! Final assessments will be announced May 1, 2008.

What can you be doing about this? First and foremost, you need to make sure the city tax records are accurate. The letters mailed to us gave basic information such as lot size, sq footage, number of bathrooms. If you'd don't still have that letter, you can find your tax information on the city web site: http://www.cityofrochester.gov/. . You don't want to pay taxes for an 1800 sq foot house if your house is actually 1675 sq feet! I will include some information at a later date about property values and how to determine if your property is fairly assessed.

Property Tax Rebate Checks

When you weed through all your junk mail during the next few weeks, be on the lookout for a letter and application from the State of New York for a property tax rebate. Applications are scheduled to be mailed to western New York in mid to late July.

You might recall that last year, New York State property owners simply received a rebate check. This year, our state legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided to have homeowners apply for the rebate. Reportedly, Governor Spitzer was in favor of treating the rebate as a tax reduction but lawmakers insisted that taxpayers be sent checks with politicians’ names prominently displayed. Also different from last year are income limits, with those who make less than $90,000 downstate getting the greatest benefits.

I guess I’m just not smart enough to be a lawmaker. For the life of me, I can’t understand why we don’t just reduce taxes instead of mailing an application that gets returned and processed so we can mail a rebate check. Heck, if we eliminate postage times two plus printing and processing, maybe we could even increase the savings for each taxpayer!

I have similar feelings about the NY State STAR (School Tax Relief) deduction. It is always a challenge for me to explain to families relocating to New York State that the property taxes for a home are X but if they fill out a form and submit it to their tax assessor’s office before March, they will automatically qualify for a significant reduction in the school tax bill of their primary residence, and no, they don’t need to apply every year.

Again, why not just reduce the tax? A realtor friend with many more years experience than me says, “That’s just not the New York way.”