Our friends from PropertyShark have the week off from their Curbed column, so we're grateful to Lower East Side blogger Felix Salmon for filling the void. He points out a map showing the tax assessment value of the land in Manhattan (above in excerpt form; full island here), then picks it apart:
It's fascinating to compare the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side. The UWS is still very much the inferior side of the park, it would seem, and especially Central Park West can't dream of comparing itself to Fifth Avenue or Central Park South.... That said, the UWS keeps its value much further north than the UES does... In terms of the practical meaning of this map, I wonder if it means that those of us who live in the East Village, the Lower East Side and in Harlem should be worried about an increase in the assessed value of our apartments. And, indeed, if all of downtown between Chambers and 14th Street – definitely a more expensive area, in terms of market value, than the Upper East Side – shouldn't share that fear. My East Village apartment has an assessed value of $33,689, which is based on a "market value" of $80,848. I'm not sure how either of these numbers are arrived at, but I fear what might happen to my property taxes if either of them started being adjusted for reality.
· Valuation Map of Manhattan [Felix Salmon]
· Manhattan Value Map [Radical Cartography]