Middletown Homes Are Assessed Every Year; Rose 11 Percent In 2025

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Middletown property values are skyrocketing — and homeowners are paying for it in taxes.

The average assessed value of a home in Middletown rose 11 percent in 2025, Mayor Tony Perry revealed at the Feb. 18 Middletown Township Committee meeting.

However, Perry said it is only properties that increased higher than 11 percent that will pay more property tax this year.

"Only when you are at or above that average assessed increase, will you see an increase in your property taxes," Perry said at the meeting. "That is the one thing people don't understand. They see my assessment went up eight percent, so now you are taxing me at an eight-percent increase. That is not how the program works. It's actually far more complicated than that."

Unlike elsewhere in New Jersey, property values are assessed every year in Monmouth County. In 2013, Gov. Chris Christie chose Monmouth to be the test site for assessments done every year, according to this document from Hazlet Twp.

It was a five-year test program that became permanent. It's called either the Monmouth County ADP (Assessment Demonstration Program) or Monmouth Annual Reassessment.

But Mike Morris, a Middletown resident who ran last year for Township Committee as a Democrat (he did not win), said he thinks the yearly assessments are a way Monmouth County towns can get more tax revenue without towns having to raise their tax rate.

"My 2025 assessment went up 18.75 percent from last year; it's up $107,000," he said. "That's crazy. It's a windfall for the county — they can raise revenue without raising taxes. It's a backdoor way of getting more money while saying they kept the tax rate flat."

The Middletown tax rate has not increased beyond two percent each year; the state put a two percent cap on how much New Jersey towns can raise taxes.

Also, some Middletown residents say their homes are assessed at far higher than market value. Middletown residents can appeal the yearly assessment.

Monmouth County has long defended that it does property assessments every year. They say assessing property values yearly is the only way to keep taxes up to date with what homeowners should be paying in tax.

"Participating taxing districts must reassess all properties annually to maintain fair property tax distribution. The goal of the reassessment is to react to the market, rather than predict it," Monmouth County said on page 5 of the Monmouth Annual Reassessment Summary, which was just released.

Page 17 of that document shows the average value of assessed homes in Middletown rose 11.4 percent in 2025.

In fact, state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver) thinks the rest of New Jersey should do it the way Monmouth County does. In this 2018 press release, O'Scanlon said yearly assessments "eliminate the massive cost for towns to complete wholesale reassessments every 10 years, and will also protect homeowners from the tax shock that many currently receive when their home is reassessed for the first time in a decade or more."

This week, O'Scanlon said he stands by that.

"Anyone who knows how taxes work knows ADP is the fairest, best way to do taxes," O'Scanlon said Friday. "Anyone who argues the annual assessments are not fair is arguing someone else should be paying their share of property taxes. And they can come look me in the eye and make that argument."

Monmouth County said on page 5 of that document:

"Many municipalities in the state still take a 'portfolio snap-shot' at a given point in time and distribute their property taxes the way that picture looked for the subsequent 10 or 20 years. By not implementing a proactive assessment maintenance approach, tax distribution becomes less accurate each year that passes."

Monmouth County started the yearly assessments in 2014. That year, all 53 towns in Monmouth County were given the chance to opt out. Some Monmouth County towns are challenging the annual assessments and they are: Allentown, Belmar, Manasquan, Marlboro, Wall, Avon and Marlboro.

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