Is Jersey City spending unusually?
Totals alone favour small towns, so these figures are normalised per resident using 2025 data reported to the NJ Division of Local Government Services. This is context, not an efficiency score: it does not measure service quality or explain why one city's costs differ.
Property-tax rates across all 12 municipalities
These two rates answer different questions. The chart ranks the effective rate because that is the fairer way to compare towns.
Multiply it by your assessed value.
This is the rate printed for the town and applied to the assessed value on your tax record. It is useful for estimating a bill within that town. For example, Jersey City's 2025 general rate is 2.335%. A $750,000 assessment would imply about $17,512 before property-specific deductions or exemptions.
It adjusts for uneven assessments.
Towns assess property at very different fractions of market value. The effective rate restates taxes as a share of estimated market value, putting every town on roughly the same scale. Do not multiply this rate by the assessed value on your bill. Kearny shows why: its general rate is 10.848%, but its comparable effective rate is 1.985%.
| Rank | Municipality | Effective (comparison) | Change | General (bill) | Assessment vs market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Guttenberg | 2.435% | +0.035 pts | 4.181% | 58.2% |
| #2 | Bayonne | 1.987% | -0.129 pts | 2.880% | 69.0% |
| #3 | Kearny | 1.985% | -0.056 pts | 10.848% | 18.3% |
| #4 | Union City | 1.859% | -0.138 pts | 1.848% | 100.6% |
| #5 | Weehawken Twp | 1.853% | -0.020 pts | 2.046% | 90.6% |
| #6 | Jersey City This city | 1.847% | -0.072 pts | 2.335% | 79.1% |
| #7 | West New York | 1.771% | -0.091 pts | 8.707% | 20.3% |
| #8 | Harrison | 1.704% | -0.160 pts | 2.384% | 71.5% |
| #9 | North Bergen Twp | 1.661% | -0.009 pts | 1.828% | 90.9% |
| #10 | East Newark Boro | 1.620% | -0.063 pts | 3.076% | 52.7% |
| #11 | Secaucus | 1.549% | -0.478 pts | 4.268% | 36.3% |
| #12 | Hoboken | 1.070% | -0.039 pts | 1.805% | 59.3% |
The effective rate is for comparison; the general rate is for calculations based on a property's assessed value. Neither is a parcel-specific bill. NJ Division of Taxation, 2025 rates .
Municipal budgets per resident
This separate comparison keeps similarly sized cities in view even when they are outside Hudson County.
Appropriations per resident, 2025
| Municipality | Population | Appropriations | Per resident | Net debt / resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoboken | 59,149 | $196.7M | $3,326 | — |
| Union City | 66,918 | $207.7M | $3,104 | $1,114 |
| Elizabeth | 140,413 | $371.8M | $2,648 | $916 |
| Jersey City This city | 302,824 | $752.4M | $2,485 | $2,330 |
| Bayonne | 74,532 | $167.4M | $2,246 | $2,714 |
|
Newark
No UFB Available
|
317,303 | — | — | — |
|
Paterson
No UFB Available
|
160,463 | — | — | — |
Blank cells mean the municipality did not file a User-Friendly Budget with the state for 2025. Data reported by municipalities is self-reported and unaudited.