For 2025 the New Jersey Division of Taxation’s tables put the general tax rate of the fourteen Bergen County towns on this site between 0.837 in Alpine and 3.271 in Harrington Park per $100 of assessed value, and the effective tax rate between 0.794 in Alpine and 2.286 in Harrington Park. The general rate is the multiplier applied to a property’s assessment to produce its bill; the effective rate is the Division’s comparison of one district with another as if every district assessed at 100 percent of value, and the Division says it is not to be used to compute a bill. The average residential assessment and average residential tax bill are the Division’s averages across a municipality’s residential line items; they describe the town, not any one property.
What do the general rate, the effective rate and the averages mean?
The Division defines the general tax rate as “a multiplier for use in determining the amount of tax levied upon each property,” expressed per $100 of taxable assessed value, and gives the arithmetic in its own example: an assessment of $150,000 at a general rate of 3.758 produces a bill of $5,637.
The effective tax rate is different in kind. The Division calls it “a statistical study that enables the comparison of one district to another district (based on the assumption that all districts are at 100% valuation)” and adds that it “is NOT to be used to compute the tax bill.” West New York, the one Hudson County town with a page on this site, shows the gap most plainly: a 2025 general rate of 8.707 against an effective rate of 1.771.
The 2025 Average Residential Statistics table reports, for each municipality, the number of residential line items, the average assessment and the average tax bill.
How do the fifteen towns compare on the Division’s 2025 figures?
The table carries the Division’s 2025 general and effective tax rates, its 2025 average residential assessment and average residential tax bill, each town’s county, and whether the municipality appears on the Division’s list of approved 2026 revaluations and reassessments. West New York is in Hudson County; the comparisons on this page are drawn over the fourteen Bergen County towns.
| Town | County | 2025 general tax rate (per $100) | 2025 effective tax rate | 2025 average residential assessment | 2025 average residential tax bill | On the Division’s 2026 revaluation list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Borough | Bergen | 0.837 | 0.794 | $2,782,718 | $23,291 | No |
| Closter Borough | Bergen | 2.072 | 2.017 | $944,688 | $19,574 | Yes |
| Cresskill Borough | Bergen | 2.269 | 2.014 | $893,894 | $20,282 | Yes |
| Demarest Borough | Bergen | 1.805 | 1.924 | $1,446,665 | $26,112 | No |
| Edgewater Borough | Bergen | 1.645 | 1.545 | $670,988 | $11,038 | Yes |
| Englewood City | Bergen | 3.116 | 2.088 | $474,254 | $14,778 | No |
| Englewood Cliffs Borough | Bergen | 1.165 | 0.995 | $1,363,086 | $15,880 | No |
| Fort Lee Borough | Bergen | 2.700 | 1.839 | $480,856 | $12,983 | No |
| Harrington Park Borough | Bergen | 3.271 | 2.286 | $545,400 | $17,840 | No |
| Haworth Borough | Bergen | 3.225 | 2.185 | $659,285 | $21,262 | No |
| Norwood Borough | Bergen | 2.892 | 2.054 | $560,028 | $16,196 | Yes |
| Old Tappan Borough | Bergen | 2.346 | 1.785 | $825,978 | $19,377 | Yes |
| Ridgewood Village | Bergen | 2.890 | 1.944 | $712,672 | $20,596 | No |
| Tenafly Borough | Bergen | 2.973 | 2.086 | $845,192 | $25,128 | No |
| West New York Town | Hudson | 8.707 | 1.771 | $98,696 | $8,593 | No |
Rates are per $100 of assessed value as the Division publishes them; the effective rate is the Division’s cross-district comparison and is not for computing a bill. Averages describe a municipality, not any one property. Transcribed by B&Co. Realty from the Division’s 2025 General Tax Rates and 2025 Average Residential Statistics tables and its 2026 Approved Revaluations and Reassessments list; the same figures are published as data at /data/town-tax.json.
Of the fourteen Bergen County towns on this site, Alpine has the lowest 2025 effective rate at 0.794 and Harrington Park the highest at 2.286. The lowest average residential bill among them in the Division’s 2025 tabulation is $11,038 in Edgewater; the highest is $26,112 in Demarest.
What does the 2026 revaluation list mean?
The Division’s 2026 Approved Revaluations and Reassessments list, updated May 13, 2026, names the taxing districts that “have been verified for compliance with N.J.A.C 18:12A-1.14(g) and will be recognized in the 2026 Director’s Table of Equalized Valuations for implementation of a Revaluation or Reassessment.” Of the fifteen towns on this site, five are on it: Closter, Cresskill, Edgewater, Norwood and Old Tappan. The list gives a code, a county and a municipality for each district; it does not say whether a town’s program is a revaluation or a reassessment. Under N.J.A.C. 18:12A-1.14(g) no program is credited “where less than 50 percent of the line items have changed,” and revaluations “ordinarily” adjust all of them. The Bergen County Board of Taxation publishes its own 2026–2027 revaluation and reassessment list, dated January 7, 2026 and marked “subject to change at any time,” which names six towns on this site for 2027: Englewood, Fort Lee, Harrington Park, Haworth, Ridgewood and Tenafly.
The Division’s own explanation, in its Revaluations pamphlet (revised May 2022), is that “A revaluation program seeks to spread the tax burden equitably within a municipality.” In the pamphlet’s worked example a town’s aggregate assessments double and “the revaluation would not have caused an increase in total taxes to be collected by the municipality. The tax rate would have declined proportionately.” The Division’s 2026 Average Residential Statistics table already carries the 2026 average assessments, set beside 2025 below; its 2026 general tax rate table had not been posted when this page was reviewed, so no 2026 bill can be computed yet.
| Town | 2025 average residential assessment | 2026 average residential assessment | On the Division’s 2026 revaluation list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Borough | $2,782,718 | $2,834,789 | No |
| Closter Borough | $944,688 | $1,058,359 | Yes |
| Cresskill Borough | $893,894 | $1,010,918 | Yes |
| Demarest Borough | $1,446,665 | $1,469,280 | No |
| Edgewater Borough | $670,988 | $710,187 | Yes |
| Englewood City | $474,254 | $475,041 | No |
| Englewood Cliffs Borough | $1,363,086 | $1,388,803 | No |
| Fort Lee Borough | $480,856 | $481,982 | No |
| Harrington Park Borough | $545,400 | $546,254 | No |
| Haworth Borough | $659,285 | $671,453 | No |
| Norwood Borough | $560,028 | $919,294 | Yes |
| Old Tappan Borough | $825,978 | $1,274,897 | Yes |
| Ridgewood Village | $712,672 | $714,634 | No |
| Tenafly Borough | $845,192 | $851,206 | No |
| West New York Town | $98,696 | $98,937 | No |
Average residential assessment for the two list years as the Division publishes them; the 2026 table carries no average bill, and the 2026 rates were not yet posted on the review date. No percentage change is computed here.
Two procedural points follow from the Division’s pages. Where the program is a revaluation, the pamphlet states that the revaluation firm “is required to mail each taxpayer a notice of the new appraised value,” usually “after November 10 but prior to December 31,” with guidance on an informal hearing. And where a revaluation or reassessment has been undertaken, an appeal to the county board “must be filed and received by May 1st” rather than April 1; the Bergen County Board of Taxation’s page states that the deadline for a 2026 assessment appeal has passed.
How to check a specific property’s taxes
- Open the Bergen County Board of Taxation page and use its “Bergen County Property Record Search” link, which opens the assessment-records search the county board links to; a record shows the assessment and a Taxes line by block and lot.
- The municipal tax collector issues the bill. The county board publishes a 2026 list of municipal tax collectors with a telephone number for each municipality.
- Assessments are set as of October 1 for the following tax year, so a record read in the autumn may not show the value that will govern next year’s bill. The Division’s Assessment and Appeals page states the standard for changing one: the owner must prove it “unreasonable compared to a market value standard,” and the county board adds that “your current assessment is by law assumed to be correct.”
B&Co. Realty works as a New Jersey transaction broker. The Real Estate Commission’s own definition, printed in the Consumer Information Statement that N.J.A.C. 11:5-6.9 requires licensees to supply to buyers and sellers, is that “A TRANSACTION BROKER DOES NOT PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF ONE PARTY OVER THOSE OF THE OTHER PARTY TO THE TRANSACTION.” On any listing or offer the tax figure that counts is the specific property’s current assessment and bill from the municipal record, not a municipal average; a question about an assessment or an appeal belongs with the municipal assessor or the party’s own attorney.
Related: how the assessment is set aside as evidence of value is in how a home is valued; what a sale costs at closing is in the closing-cost reference. Sources reviewed September 14, 2026.