Somerset County Home Values Decline After Trump Tax Cuts: Report – Hillsborough, NJ Patch

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — President Donald Trump promised his administration’s 2017 tax reforms would mean a “very substantial tax cut for middle income folks who work so hard.” But according to a recent report, Somerset County residents have taken big hits to the value of their homes as a result.

ProPublica and Fortune have released a list of the 30 counties which have seen the largest percentage declines in the values of their homes after the Trump administration enacted its controversial Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Read the full report and learn about its methodology.

Somerset County – where homeowners saw a 9.8 percent dip – was the fifth highest hit county in New Jersey.

Essex County was the highest hit with a 11.3 percent dip. Other New Jersey counties that saw major declines include:

  • Union – 11%
  • Bergen – 9.9%
  • Passaic – 9.8%
  • Somerset – 9.8%
  • Mercer – 9.6%
  • Hunterdon – 9.6%
  • Gloucester – 9.5%
  • Camden – 9.2%
  • Morris – 9%
  • Hudson – 9%
  • Burlington – 8.3%
  • Sussex – 8.2%
  • Middlesex – 8%
  • Monmouth – 7.3%
  • Warren – 7.1%

According to the ProPublica/Fortune report, the 2017 tax law capped federal deductions for state and local real estate and income taxes at $10,000 a year and also eliminated some mortgage interest deductions.

Counties with high home prices and high real estate taxes and where homeowners have big mortgages suffered the biggest hits, given the larger value of the lost tax deductions, the report stated.

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