Lehigh Valley Now – Emmaus borough tax increase

I recently came across this article about the wild tax increase in Emmaus. I wanted to take a minute to dive into it and give my thoughts.

Obviously this caused quite an outcry of concern from residents as the overall cost of living  continues to climb significantly year after year. It feels like horrible timing to increase property taxes, and nearly 26% at that.

I will share the link to the WFMZ article in my Instagram post.

They offer a detailed breakdown of the borough’s increasing costs for day to day operations. A detail I thought was important was that there are actually budget cuts like eliminating 6 full-time employees/positions and eliminating a second full time ambulance during the day Monday – Friday to counteract the uncontrollable costs we all experience.  We are clearly in hard times right now and something like this is never easy.

One thing that particularly stood out to me was the borough offers services to the residents that many other areas don’t offer. Only 45% of local municipalities have their own police and only 20% have a fire department that is not fully volunteer. The borough Emmaus has both.

Other items to note

• Many costs to the borough of Emmaus have increased as well.

• Healthcare 11%
• Worker’s compensation 34%
• Electricity cost 30%
• Refuse costs up $518,628

• Revenue is expected to drop more than $1 million because of decrease in construction, causing permitting revenue alone to decrease more than $30,000.

One of the biggest questions I’ve been getting on this is “How does this affect the real estate market in Emmaus?” With the cost of everything continuously rising, housing affordability is a huge topic of discussion. In 2004 you needed to make an income of $44,103 a year to qualify to purchase the average sale price home in PA, today that income needs to be $78,343. Tax increases have had an impact on values in the past. Luckily, we’re still in a market with limited inventory and an area like Emmaus is a desirable area to live. Fortunately, most buyers will just analyze and adjust their budget to fit the property they are interested in. Some may end up having to lower their budget away from your home but remember there will be someone else who lowers their budget into yours. Another possibility could be if they are weighing two different areas and one of them might have a lower average property tax than Emmaus, like Upper Macungie or North Whitehall townships. This could potentially create a slight decrease in the demand for the Emmaus housing. Fortunate for you, not enough that the borough will have an overall decrease in property value. Also it’s good to note that most areas are seeing tax increases in the Lehigh Valley, although not as significant as Emmaus there are still increases across the board due to increased costs in general.

If you were considering selling your home in Emmaus or even if you want to consider relocation options because of this, I got you. it’s important now more than ever to make sure you’re pricing your home correctly when first going on the market to ensure you’re taking full advantage of the current climate. We are continuing to see more and more homes sit and require price reductions and noting longer days on the market because of initial improper pricing. If you want to discuss more about strategy and pricing, drop me a DM on Instagram/Facebook. I can be reached by cell or email as well. I’m here if you want to chat, even just to commiserate about taxes, all I have is solidarity.

I’m Frank. This is Lehigh Valley Now. Stay tuned for more.