Long Island Property Taxes Keep Rising

Now Is the Best Time to Challenge Your Assessment

Long Island homeowners are once again facing higher property taxes, even as the real estate market shows signs of cooling. Suffolk County’s newly approved 3.18% property tax increase for 2026 is only part of the story. Several towns, including Riverhead and Smithtown, are planning their own significant tax hikes, adding even more pressure on homeowners and commercial property owners across the region.

What many taxpayers don’t realize is that rising tax bills often have very little to do with current home prices. Instead, they’re driven by how New York’s assessment system works, and how slowly it adjusts to real-time market changes. Understanding that disconnect is the key to lowering your property taxes in 2026.

Long Island property taxes rise because municipal budgets rise, not because your home appreciated this year. Towns and counties must fund salaries, pension obligations, health benefits, school budgets, infrastructure projects, and public safety costs. When those expenses increase—as they have steadily for years—the tax levy increases to cover them. Even if your home didn’t gain a dollar in value this year, your tax bill can still go up simply because your local government must raise revenue.

At the same time, property assessments on Long Island often lag well behind the actual housing market. Many homes are still assessed based on values from the peak of the pandemic boom, when sale prices skyrocketed. More recently, high mortgage rates have cooled the market, and real-world sale prices have softened. But assessments haven’t adjusted nearly as fast. When you combine rising tax rates with an outdated or inflated assessment, you get one outcome: you pay more than your fair share.

That’s why the upcoming tax grievance period is especially important. With Suffolk County approving its increase and towns like Riverhead and Smithtown proposing 6.7% and 10.7% hikes, correcting an over-assessment now can meaningfully reduce your tax burden for years. Even a small reduction in assessed value can produce significant annual savings when tax rates are climbing.

Many homeowners simply assume their assessment is accurate; however, it’s extremely common for assessments to be based on outdated data, incorrect assumptions about condition or improvements, or comparisons to renovated homes that bear no resemblance to yours. In neighborhoods with recent development or large new construction projects, assessment distortions are even more common.

The best way to tell if your home may be over-assessed is to compare your assessed value to recently closed sales of similar homes in your area. If those sales are lower, or if your home is older or less updated than the properties used as comparables, you may be a strong candidate for a property tax grievance. Another sign is simple: if your taxes keep climbing while your home’s value has remained flat or even declined, your assessment may be out of sync.

Correcting an inflated assessment doesn’t just lower your taxes for one year, in many cases, it lowers your bill for multiple years going forward, especially in towns and counties where tax rates rise annually. With Suffolk and Nassau County budget pressures expected to continue, this is an ideal time for homeowners to take a close look at where their assessed value stands.

At Blodnick, Fazio & Clark, we help homeowners, landlords, and commercial property owners across Long Island file successful property tax grievances throughout the State of New York. We evaluate your property’s assessed value, check local comparable sales, review your property record for errors, and guide you through the entire challenge process from start to finish. You pay nothing up front, and we do not earn a fee unless we obtain a reduction.

If you’re unsure whether your home or commercial property is assessed fairly, the smartest step you can take is a quick review. Submit your address to us for a free assessment analysis. A few minutes now could help you significantly reduce your Long Island property tax bill over the coming years.