Assessment grievances down in Suffolk

The number of Suffolk County property owners who contested the assessed value of their homes by last week's grievance deadline appears to have decreased slightly from last year, an informal survey of town assessors indicates.

About 9,500 grievances were filed this year in the Town of Babylon, down 10 percent from last year's 10,565, town spokesman Tim Ruggeri said.

The Town of Islip saw a 12 percent decline in filings, from 11,800 last year to 10,400.

"It could be a sign that the real estate market is starting to break in the right direction," Islip spokesman Kevin Bonner said.

In Southampton, 4,603 grievances were filed -- including 2,904 through the town's electronic application process. There, grievances dropped 25 percent from last year, said John Valente, acting assessor.

Southold Assessor Robert Scott said all information from Tuesday's deadline had not been entered, but anecdotally the numbers "might be a little higher." Southold hasn't reassessed homes since the 1967-68 tax year, he said.

Shelter Island received 32 applications this year, down from 45 last year, said Al Hammond, chairman of the Board of Assessors. Hammond said he believes real estate values have flattened out, and that in a town like Shelter Island, where census data show the median home value is $810,600, there was less of a drop in prices than in other areas of Long Island.

Numbers were steady in Huntington with about 12,000 to 13,000 filings, according to information provided by the town assessor's office.

In East Hampton 50 grievances were filed and in Riverhead 10 were submitted, but comparisons with 2010 were unavailable.

Information for Brookhaven and Smithtown was not immediately available.

The deadline to appeal in Nassau was April 23. Nassau County reported receiving 137,325 appeals this year.

Paul Henry, president of Tax Reduction Services in Greenport, said his firm has handled about 10,000 grievances on behalf of property owners across Suffolk County this year -- roughly the same number as the previous two years.

Still, he said, "our business is flourishing. Part of the reason for that is that the values are down and the taxes are up, like in so many places across the nation."

With Yamiche Alcindor, Nicholas Spangler

and Mitchell Freedman