How high is too high when it comes to Long Island property taxes? For Lucille Chillak, 68, a retired Internal Revenue Service customer service representative, it's $20,000 a year.

"I would never pay $20,000” for her three-bed, three-bath West Islip home, where the mortgage is paid off. "No, that would be ridiculous."

With Long Island property taxes rising each year due to increased real estate values, inflation and other typical factors, what is the breaking point before homeowners here consider making the difficult decision to move away because of that expense?

Long Islanders do move away for myriad reasons, such as retirement to a warmer clime, job relocation or wanting to be near family. The cost of property taxes alone might not prompt one to pull up roots. Yet some homeowners say it could become a factor.

"I will eventually move," said Syosset's Mike Virgintino, 68, a retired broadcasting and public relations professional. He estimated his current taxes are "about $14,000, about $9,000 of that for school taxes" for his three-bed, two-bath split-level on a roughly 60-by-100-foot lot. 

But it's not an isolated factor. "My son and his future wife will get married in about a year. I want to turn the house over to him. The mortgage is very low at this point. So in one sense you could say, well, it'd be foolish to move. But the school tax keeps pushing up and up."

Twenty thousand dollars also seems the threshold for Peter Vetri, 54, a co-founder of Deer Park's Atlantis Toy and Hobby. His annual property tax would need to reach "maybe close to $20,000," he said, before he would consider moving from the three-bedroom, one-bath home in Kings Park that he bought in 2004. "At that time, the taxes were $3,200," he said. After adding about 1,000 square feet of living space and an in-ground pool, increasing his home's assessed value, his annual property tax is now about $11,000.

How Long Island taxes compare

"Our property taxes tend to be much higher than other places where housing values are lower," Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said of Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Property values fluctuate wildly nationwide, and municipalities calculate property taxes differently — on Long Island they're paired with separately-voted-upon school budgets — so direct comparisons are difficult. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization based in Washington, says New York State has the sixth-highest "effective tax rate" (the average annual property tax, expressed as a percentage of a home's average estimated market value): 1.60% as of 2023.

Nassau that year saw a 1.5183% effective tax rate against a median home value of $658,700; Suffolk's was 1.8538% with a home value of $539,500. As for the actual dollar amount, homeowners in each county pay the same five-year estimated median of $10,001, according to the foundation.

"I have a lot of clients who are relocating to Florida, to the Carolinas, even to Texas, all over the place, because our taxes are so high," said Long Beach-based real estate agent Leah Tozer, of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. "When you hear taxes in North Carolina are, like, $1,200 a year as opposed to $20,000-plus, it's a little jarring."

But, she added: "That being said, people really still want to be in New York. I find it so interesting that on new constructions, where the taxes are going to start a little higher, people hear $24,000 taxes for a new construction in Seaford and they don't even blink."

That's because there are other factors, Tozer said. If a particular home, for instance, does not require "$6,000-$7,000 in flood insurance, then it's actually OK. Or if you have kids and you like the school district and the taxes are higher [than elsewhere], you're probably going to think, 'Hey, I don't have to pay for them to go to private school. I'm fine with it.' "

'Good schools and a lot of good things'

Long Island is a great place to raise a family, and you're going to pay a little more for that. I know people who said, 'Ah, I can't afford it here' and they went to Missouri or Tennessee and came back a year later because the schools were horrible.

— Peter Vetri, of Kings Park

Indeed, Vetri said, the high taxes here generally provide for "good schools and a lot of good things" in terms of municipal services and amenities. "Long Island is a great place to raise a family, and you're going to pay a little more for that. I know people who said, 'Ah, I can't afford it here' and they went to Missouri or Tennessee and came back a year later because the schools were horrible."

"The real question about property taxes is whether the people paying it feel they're getting value for their dollars, and that the people levying the taxes are spending in a way that is in line with their values," said Levy. "And for all the complaining people do — which may be justified because of the high levels compared to the rest of the country — they overwhelmingly approve the level of taxation in the one area where taxpayers have the most control, school budgets. I mean, I think 99% of the budgets passed."

Pretty close: It was 98.39% in May 2024 when 122 school districts of 124 Islandwide passed their school budgets. The two that failed to do so — Sachem and West Babylon — were among a half-dozen that had sought to override the state-mandated annual tax cap of 2% or the inflation rate, whichever is lower. (The next month the two districts passed school budgets within the cap, although that required cutting "dozens of positions for teachers and other staff" between them.)

"By and large," Levy said, "most taxpayers are, if not satisfied, at least OK enough with the level of property taxation to overwhelmingly approve school budgets, which account for two-thirds to three-quarters of the burden year after year after year."

Fighting city hall

If homeowners believe their property tax is too high, New York State has avenues of appeal. The technical term is certiorari (Latin for "to inform"), which in law is defined as the process of a higher court reviewing the decision of a lower court. In terms of real estate law, it has become shorthand for appealing a property tax bill.

This is a standard law specialty, and homeowners generally pay no legal fees up front; the attorney takes a percentage of any amount recovered. "You can go in yourself through the process and challenge the assessment," said Virgintino, "but I've had a company do it. And it seems like every year I get reassessed a little lower [after certiorari] and I always get money off my next year's taxes," since the money saved is given back in the form of a rebate.

Note that the certiorari process only applies to the part of your property tax based on your home's assessed value — not on the part that funds school budgets. But a New York State homeowner can address that part with the School Tax Relief (STAR) program.

There are two types of STAR tax credits and tax exemptions: Basic STAR and Enhanced STAR. They are available only for owner-occupied primary residences, and are subject to income limits. Basic is available at any age, Enhanced to homeowners 65 or older. On Long Island, unlike in New York City and four other cities statewide, the STAR benefit applies only to school-district taxes.

"Always apply for the discounts," Chillak advised.

Other factors

Property tax, of course, does not exist in a vacuum. It is one of several factors that make up a home's annual carrying costs, together with your mortgage rate, your annual homeowners insurance, your annual flood insurance (if required) and others. Also impacting home affordability is the $10,000 cap on the federal income tax's State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, put in place in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Previously, the entire cost of a primary residence's property tax, as well as mortgage interest payments, had been deductible, thus reducing a homeowner's taxable income.

The House's bipartisan SALT Caucus was scheduled to begin negotiations April 30 with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) on raising the cap.

Yeah, taxes are higher here than most places. But I would say you kind of get what you pay for.

— Peter Vetri, of Kings Park

Other factors, said real estate broker Tozer, are less tangible. "I think there are a lot of people that are ready to leave the state because of the taxes but they're waiting for their kids to finish school, because a lot of people want their kids to go to a SUNY school" and want the in-state tuition. More locally, she said, "If you have a lot of roots here and a lot of family, it becomes a little bit harder for people to leave that quickly. The roots in New York are strong. They call it 'Strong Island' for many reasons, and that's one of them."

Not everyone can afford a lifetime on Long Island. But for many people, that's the dream — high property taxes or not.

"Yeah, taxes are higher here than most places," said Vetri. "But I would say you kind of get what you pay for."