Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax: Assessing Landmark Buildings for Real Taxation Purposes

Historic preservation is an issue of growing importance and public commitment. Federal and state mechanisms have been established to identify and support historic buildings/sites, while local governments have been active in supporting and protecting historic resources. Communities across the country have established designation programs whereby individual buildings or districts of historical-architectural significance are accorded landmark status.

Designation activity has been accompanied by growing interest in other local incentives/disincentives to the support of historic buildings. In this regard, the property tax is viewed as either a possible powerful drawback to or a catalyst of preservation. This study examines the relationship between historic preservation and the property tax, focusing on the question of how designated buildings should be assessed for real taxation purposes.

Listokin focuses on New York City in considering the effects of historic status on property value and in evaluating assessment practices. But this book’s findings are transferrable to other communities because the base conditions are similar. Many other cities have designation programs modeled on New York City’s. In addition, New York’s property-tax system and administrative processes resemble those found in communities across the nation. To enhance the transferability of this study’s findings, Listokin refers to the national experience and literature, typically on a side-by-side basis with the New York City counterpart.

-Listokin's study... offers suggestions on how designated [historic] buildings should be assessed so as to enhance the probability of their survival in the urban land market... [His] study represents a practical manual for improved assessment practices... [T]he book's value lies in its demonstration of how imprecise is the present assessment of historic buildings and how little we know about the influence of t he property tax on building preservation... urban geographers, especially those studying the process of inner-city neighborhood revitalization should note the extensive annotated bibliography that concludes the book.- --Peter W. Rees, Annals of the Association of American Geographers -A movement is growing throughout the country that offers a partial answer to the problems of aging towns in regional development... The movement is called heritage conservation, area revitalization, rehabilitation, and, more recently, historic preservation. Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax focuses on the critical relationship between preserving the built environment and the property tax assessed on designated buildings for real taxation purposes... [A]n exploratory investigation concerned... with the relationship of landmark designation and property tax assessment procedures... [I]t has contributed to elevating the awareness of the dynamics associated with real-property assessment of the historic built environment.- --Richard G. Fritz, Growth and Change -Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is the product of a research project sponsored by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and carried out by the author and a team of investigators... Historic preservationists sometimes claim that historic designation benefits communities by increasing the property values of designated properties. In other instances preservationists have argues that the constraints placed upon the prerogatives of the property owner by designation preclude his making the best economic use of the site, and therefore the assessment process should make allowance by factoring a lower rate of assessment than for adjacent sites. This study makes significant progress in clarifying the multifaceted relationships between historic designation, property value, and property assessment... Listokin draws extensively and with insight from the emerging national literature concerning historic designation, property value, and property assessment relationships and provides us, not merely with another case study, but more importantly, with a balanced, comprehensive analysis from which pragmatic policies and strategies can begin to be formulated... the book is -a good read- and this, together with its very real substantive value, makes it a very suitable text for students in historic preservation, urban planning, and assessment practice. It is also recommended to practitioners in these fields.- --Marshall S. McLennan, The Professional Geographer -Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is well documents, as befits a monograph dealing with statutory law and administrative procedure, and it contains an excellent annotated bibliography.- --James Heilbrun, Political Science Quarterly -This study should be of interest to a wide range of people.- --Real Estate Law Journal "Listokin's study... offers suggestions on how designated [historic] buildings should be assessed so as to enhance the probability of their survival in the urban land market... [His] study represents a practical manual for improved assessment practices... [T]he book's value lies in its demonstration of how imprecise is the present assessment of historic buildings and how little we know about the influence of t he property tax on building preservation... urban geographers, especially those studying the process of inner-city neighborhood revitalization should note the extensive annotated bibliography that concludes the book." --Peter W. Rees, Annals of the Association of American Geographers "A movement is growing throughout the country that offers a partial answer to the problems of aging towns in regional development... The movement is called heritage conservation, area revitalization, rehabilitation, and, more recently, historic preservation. Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax focuses on the critical relationship between preserving the built environment and the property tax assessed on designated buildings for real taxation purposes... [A]n exploratory investigation concerned... with the relationship of landmark designation and property tax assessment procedures... [I]t has contributed to elevating the awareness of the dynamics associated with real-property assessment of the historic built environment." --Richard G. Fritz, Growth and Change "Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is the product of a research project sponsored by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and carried out by the author and a team of investigators... Historic preservationists sometimes claim that historic designation benefits communities by increasing the property values of designated properties. In other instances preservationists have argues that the constraints placed upon the prerogatives of the property owner by designation preclude his making the best economic use of the site, and therefore the assessment process should make allowance by factoring a lower rate of assessment than for adjacent sites. This study makes significant progress in clarifying the multifaceted relationships between historic designation, property value, and property assessment... Listokin draws extensively and with insight from the emerging national literature concerning historic designation, property value, and property assessment relationships and provides us, not merely with another case study, but more importantly, with a balanced, comprehensive analysis from which pragmatic policies and strategies can begin to be formulated... the book is "a good read" and this, together with its very real substantive value, makes it a very suitable text for students in historic preservation, urban planning, and assessment practice. It is also recommended to practitioners in these fields." --Marshall S. McLennan, The Professional Geographer "Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is well documents, as befits a monograph dealing with statutory law and administrative procedure, and it contains an excellent annotated bibliography." --James Heilbrun, Political Science Quarterly "This study should be of interest to a wide range of people." --Real Estate Law Journal "Listokin's study... offers suggestions on how designated [historic] buildings should be assessed so as to enhance the probability of their survival in the urban land market... [His] study represents a practical manual for improved assessment practices... [T]he book's value lies in its demonstration of how imprecise is the present assessment of historic buildings and how little we know about the influence of t he property tax on building preservation... urban geographers, especially those studying the process of inner-city neighborhood revitalization should note the extensive annotated bibliography that concludes the book." --Peter W. Rees, Annals of the Association of American Geographers "A movement is growing throughout the country that offers a partial answer to the problems of aging towns in regional development... The movement is called heritage conservation, area revitalization, rehabilitation, and, more recently, historic preservation. Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax focuses on the critical relationship between preserving the built environment and the property tax assessed on designated buildings for real taxation purposes... [A]n exploratory investigation concerned... with the relationship of landmark designation and property tax assessment procedures... [I]t has contributed to elevating the awareness of the dynamics associated with real-property assessment of the historic built environment." --Richard G. Fritz, Growth and Change "Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is the product of a research project sponsored by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and carried out by the author and a team of investigators... Historic preservationists sometimes claim that historic designation benefits communities by increasing the property values of designated properties. In other instances preservationists have argues that the constraints placed upon the prerogatives of the property owner by designation preclude his making the best economic use of the site, and therefore the assessment process should make allowance by factoring a lower rate of assessment than for adjacent sites. This study makes significant progress in clarifying the multifaceted relationships between historic designation, property value, and property assessment... Listokin draws extensively and with insight from the emerging national literature concerning historic designation, property value, and property assessment relationships and provides us, not merely with another case study, but more importantly, with a balanced, comprehensive analysis from which pragmatic policies and strategies can begin to be formulated... the book is "a good read" and this, together with its very real substantive value, makes it a very suitable text for students in historic preservation, urban planning, and assessment practice. It is also recommended to practitioners in these fields." --Marshall S. McLennan, The Professional Geographer "Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is well documents, as befits a monograph dealing with statutory law and administrative procedure, and it contains an excellent annotated bibliography." --James Heilbrun, Political Science Quarterly "This study should be of interest to a wide range of people." --"Real Estate Law Journal" "Landmarks Preservation and the Property Tax is well documents, as befits a monograph dealing with statutory law and administrative procedure, and it contains an excellent annotated bibliography." --James Heilbrun, Political Science Quarterly "This study should be of interest to a wide range of people." --"Real Estate Law Journal"