A controversial new tax on second homes in New York City was quietly lowered from $5 million to a “market value” of $1 million — increasing the number of homeowners who will get squeezed as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s never-ending budget negotiations.
Hochul’s office finally released details of her and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new tax on second homes in New York City to the New York Times Thursday, the latest concession to the Democratic socialist mayor and his liberal followers on a tax-hike crusade they say will target the rich.
The so-called “pied-a-terre” tax would apply to second homes with market values exceeding $1 million, though it wasn’t immediately clear how City Hall would impose the tax.
Hochul’s office previously estimated roughly 13,000 homes would be subject to the tax under the $5 million market value threshold, meaning that number is likely to be bigger with the new threshold although an estimate of how many homes wasn’t immediately available.
The revelation came just hours after top legislators said a deal was still yet to be finalized on the pied-a-terre.
“I don’t have any final details. I have an idea of it, but I don’t have the exact details,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters Thursday.
He said at the time that there was still even debate over whether the tax should be based on a property’s assessed value or a trickier to determine market value.
Bloomberg also was first to report Thursday that Hochul and legislators had agreed to another previously unrevealed tax – a surcharge on cash purchases of homes over $1 million.
