Posted by Leonard Steinberg of COMPASS on May 8th, 2015

PLEASE: someone PLEASE tell me where you can buy a MANSION for $1,75million….or $ 3million….or even $5 million in Manhattan? Our brilliant local government has officially re-defined the meaning of the word MANSION: Yes, a mansion in New York City can be bought for $1.75 million according to those who run our City. Really? In an effort to raise revenues to pay for affordable housing (a good thing!), Mayor De Blasio is proposing a new MANSION tax on all those ‘mansions’ that would be 1% paid by the buyer for properties valued at more than $1.75 million and 1.5% for the portion of properties valued at more than $5 million. If we all agree that this tax is going to be effective lets please re-name it. The word MANSION associated with this price-point is insulting.

If this new mansion tax goes into effect will it dampen sales activity to the point where the net gain is zero, or worse?

Oh, and if the idea of this new tax is to raise revenues, it may be a good idea for Mayor de Blasio to start raising revenues for the City in his own back yard: he pays a QUARTER of the real estate taxes compared to similarly valued MANSIONS elsewhere in New York for his Park Slope townhouse MANSION. Yes the picture posted above is Mayor de Blasio’s MANSION……and its worth about $ 1,75million. His real estate tax bill is about $ 3,000 per year….

Read more about this in the Wall Street Journal’s article this morning.