Note: There are two parcels for 49 Sanger Ave. (in the red print on the spreadsheet) because the parcel is part in the Village of New Hartford and part in the Town of New Hartford.

On the spreadsheet, column headings for Year 2003 are highlighted in yellow because that is the year that all the homes on Sanger Ave. were in Neighborhood Codes that were reassessed.  All except for the 17 homes they moved from Neighborhood Code 4801 (Village of New Hartford) into Neighborhood Code 4817 (Starter Homes).  That includes the 4,782 sq. ft. Contemporary home at 89 Sanger.  Look at some of the square feet of the homes they moved into Neighborhood 4817 (Starter Homes).  What were they thinking?

Let's go back to 2001. This should have been an easy street to figure out the Neighborhood Codes because the Village of New Hartford has their own code (4801). It is very easy to pick out the parcels that should be in this Neighborhood--they are clearly marked in the assessment database with a  SWIS number that is unique to the Village of New Hartford. The SWIS number is on everyone's tax bill as well--and where do you think they get it from for the tax bill?   It is a clear identifier as to where a parcel is located. The Village of New Hartford is 304801 and the Town of New Hartford is 304889. All they had to do was look at that number on each parcel in the database.   But instead they used tax map numbers to determine the neighborhood codes in 2001. They didn't use anything else--not square feet, style of home, location--all the things that by definition should determine a neighborhood code. In 2001 when neighborhood codes were first used for assessment purposes, tax map numbers were the determining factor as to what neighborhood code your property was placed in, and that is the root of most of the assessment problems in our town.

Look at the two columns on the spreadsheet highlighted in blue with a black box drawn around them; columns titled "SWIS" and "2001 Nbhd".  All the 304801 SWIS numbers are highlighted in pink.  If the neighborhood codes were done correctly, you would only see SWIS codes that were highlighted in pink with Neighborhood Code 4801 (The Village of New Hartford).  But if you look you will also see parcels with 304889 SWIS numbers highlighted in green with Neighborhood Code 4801.  Those parcels are not in the Village but rather are in the Town of New Hartford.  Anything with a SWIS number of 304889 is outside the Village.  Easy to figure out, you would think.

If the fact that they couldn't get the right parcels in Neighborhood Code 4801 (Village of New Hartford) in 2001 is not bad enough, in 2003 when it was time to reassess the Village and Neighborhood Code 4807, they must have realized their mistake and instead of taking the time to figure out where the parcels should be, they just moved all the ones that were not supposed to be in Neighborhood Code 4801 (The Village of New Hartford) to Neighborhood Code 4817 (Starter Homes).  Look at the size of some of these homes--drive by them. How in the world could they have missed the fact that these are not Starter Homes?   By the way, Neighborhood Code 4817 (Starter Homes) have never been reassessed; they were merely trended 7.5% in 2004.  See Neighborhood Codes for descriptions of each "Neighborhood".

Look at the spreadsheet.  Between the ones that were moved to the wrong neighborhood and the ones that they chose not to reassess for some reason, 26 (highlighted in gray) of the 60 homes on Sanger Ave. were not reassessed at all in 2003.  That is 43% of the homes on Sanger Ave where the market value supposedly did not increase since 1995 when the last town-wide reassessment took place.  Don't  you find it hard to believe that there were 26 homes that did not increase in value on Sanger Ave. in the Village of New Hartford between 1995 and 2003?

If you haven't read our report "The Rest of the Story" , you might want to do that now--it will help clarify the tax map number question.

Fair assessing in the Town of New Hartford?   You decide.

Take a look at our other spreadsheets (in pdf format--you will need 8.5 by 14 paper to print or you will have to piece smaller sheets together after printing) Paris Road, Higby Road, Jordan Road and Lloyds Lane.  More streets will be added.

Please keep watching this site if you want to know what really happened.  Email us New Hartford, N.Y. Online if you have any questions or better yet, check with the assessor to see if he agrees with our reports and then ask him "How Come?"

The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) defines a neighborhood as "(1) The environment of a subject property that has a direct and immediate effect on value.  (2)  A geographic area of properties sharing important location characteristics defined for purposes of market analysis or modeling (typically with fewer than several thousand properties)."  Notice both of these definitions revolve around the notion of effect of location on value.

In simpler terms, a "neighborhood" consists of properties that are comparable in terms of the probability of a buyer being equally as interested in buying House A as they would be in buying House B.  In other words, if I was a buyer, I would not be interested in looking at a house in a neighborhood code made up with homes that are 1,000 sq. ft. when I intend to buy a 5,000 sq. ft. home. Therefore, the 1,000 sq. ft. home should not be in the same neighborhood code as the 5,000 sq. ft. home.