A relocating buyer sits down with two browser tabs open: one for a Ho-Ho-Kus listing, one for a similar house a few miles over in Allendale. Same price range, same square footage, same commute to the train. Then they check the tax rate. Ho-Ho-Kus comes in at a general rate of roughly 2.501 per $100 of assessed value this year. Allendale sits at 2.030. Franklin Lakes is lower still, at 1.904. On paper, Ho-Ho-Kus just lost the comparison before the buyer ever walked through the front door.
That reaction is understandable and it is also based on a number that does not mean what it looks like it means. The general tax rate is not a price tag. It is one half of an equation, and the other half is the part almost nobody posts next to it.
What the Rate on the Page Is Actually Measuring
A municipal tax rate is a ratio: the total levy a town needs to raise divided by the total assessed value of everything inside its borders. Bergen County's 2024 certified tax rate table put Ho-Ho-Kus at 2.407. Since then it has climbed to roughly 2.501. That increase reflects a bigger levy, more spending across school, municipal, and county budgets, spread across the same tax base, not a sudden spike in what any individual home is worth.
Here is why that matters more in a town like Ho-Ho-Kus specifically. The borough covers just 1.74 square miles. A small tax base means a modest increase in the school or municipal budget shows up as a more visible jump in the rate than the same dollar increase would in a larger town with more ratables to spread it across. The climb from 2.407 to roughly 2.501 is a budget story before it is a housing story.
None of this changes what the rate is actually applied against: assessed value, not market value. And that distinction is where the real comparison breaks down.
| Town | Current general tax rate (per $100 assessed value) |
|---|---|
| Franklin Lakes | 1.904 |
| Allendale | 2.030 |
| Mahwah | 2.127 |
| Ho-Ho-Kus | 2.501 |
Read across that table and Ho-Ho-Kus looks like the expensive outlier. But every one of those rates is being multiplied against a different base, and the towns do not assess property at the same fraction of what it would actually sell for.
The Ratio Nobody Puts on the Chart
New Jersey requires every county to publish an equalization table precisely because assessed value and market value drift apart over time, and they drift apart at different speeds in different towns. A municipality that completed a full revaluation recently will have assessments that track close to market value. A municipality that has not revalued in years will have assessments sitting well below what homes are actually selling for, even though the nominal tax rate looks lower.
You can see how wide that gap gets from a real example elsewhere in Bergen County: in Dumont, the county's equalization ratio runs close to 62.78 percent, meaning a $300,000 home is assessed at roughly $188,340 for tax purposes, not its full market value. Multiply the town's posted rate against that lower number and the bill looks nothing like what you'd get by applying the same rate to the sale price.
This is exactly why the general rate cannot be compared town to town on its own. Two towns can post similar rates and produce very different real tax bills, or post very different rates and land close to the same real burden, depending entirely on where each town's assessments sit relative to current values.
The tool that cuts through this is the effective tax rate: the actual tax bill divided by a home's true market value, adjusted for the equalization ratio. By that measure, Ho-Ho-Kus's effective rate runs around 2.33 percent, which sits below the New Jersey state median of 2.88 percent. The town that looked like the expensive one on the raw rate chart is actually taxing closer to average, and below the statewide midpoint, once you correct for what assessed value really represents.
What This Means for the Bill You'll Actually Get
Here is where most tax explainers stop, and where a buyer still gets misled. Knowing the effective rate lets you compare towns fairly. It does not tell you what your own first-year tax bill will be, because New Jersey does not reassess a property to its sale price the moment a deal closes. Assessed values change through town-wide revaluations, which happen on their own schedule, or through added assessments tied to permitted construction. A sale by itself does not trigger a fresh number.
That means the assessed value attached to a Ho-Ho-Kus home you're buying today is very likely the same figure the current owner has been paying on, regardless of what you're paying to buy it. Ho-Ho-Kus's median sale price ran about $1.2 million as of March 2026, up 7.4 percent year over year, according to housing market data. Run that price against the 2.33 percent effective rate and you'd land near $28,000 a year, a number that assumes the assessment already reflects that value. But the town's reported median annual tax bill sits closer to $15,521. That gap is the assessment lag showing up in real dollars. Many owners in Ho-Ho-Kus are paying on assessments set well before today's prices, and a new buyer typically inherits that same number until the town's next revaluation resets the base.
The practical takeaway: don't back into your expected tax bill by multiplying the effective rate against your purchase price. Ask for the seller's current assessed value and the town's actual current-year tax rate, then do that math. It will almost always land closer to the truth than a percentage-of-sale-price estimate, at least until the next town-wide reval catches everyone up at once.
Why This Should Change How You Compare Towns
If you're weighing Ho-Ho-Kus against Allendale, Franklin Lakes, or Mahwah on affordability, the general rate table is the wrong tool. Start with the effective rate to see which town actually taxes more relative to real value. Then pull the specific assessed value on any home you're seriously considering, because that number, not the town average, is what determines your actual bill the day you close.
A rate that looks high can belong to a town with assessments that lag the market. A rate that looks low can belong to a town where assessments already track close to current prices, meaning there's less room for a future catch-up. Bergen County's equalization tables are public record precisely so a buyer can check this town by town rather than guessing from a rate chart.
FAQ
Will my Ho-Ho-Kus tax bill jump right after I buy the house? Not automatically. New Jersey assessments are set through periodic town-wide revaluations and added assessments for permitted construction, not by sale price. You'll typically start out on the seller's existing assessed value until Ho-Ho-Kus conducts its next revaluation.
How do I check the real numbers before I make an offer? Ask the listing agent or seller for the property's current assessed value and the borough's current tax rate, and pull Bergen County's published equalization ratio for Ho-Ho-Kus. Together those three numbers give you a far more accurate picture than any rate comparison chart.
Property tax mechanics are one of the least visible parts of comparing Bergen County towns, and they're exactly the kind of detail that changes how a listing should be read. If you're weighing Ho-Ho-Kus against another Northern Bergen town and want the real numbers behind a specific address, Megan Fox Group can pull the current assessment, the certified rate, and a straightforward read on what a home is actually likely to cost you to hold. Start with a free home valuation and get the full picture before you compare towns on a chart alone.
