Each town sets its own general rate. The bars below are one named municipality’s school / county / municipal split of that rate — not a single county-wide bill. State school aid is outside this bar; it reduces the school levy before the rate is struck. How NJ taxes work.
Essex County at a glance
21 municipalities and 187,572 parcels are on the 2026 file. 0 of those towns have a 2026 general rate loaded. On a $500,000 sale in 2025, the estimated tax runs from $5,760 in Irvington Twp to $18,991 in Orange City Twp. The middle bill is $10,516 in West Caldwell Twp. Class 2 residential assessments moved from $74,949,604,670 to $77,793,095,070, up 3.8%. The median class 2 house was built in 1935.
Median school-share town (rate year 2025): Roseland Boro
Among 21 municipalities on the 2025 rate sheet. Bars are Roseland Boro’s own components — not three separate county medians.
Schools
51.8%
County
18.5%
Municipal
29.6%
School-share range in 2025: Orange City Twp 14.9% → West Orange Twp 62.0%.
How to read Essex County
On the 2025 rate sheet, the middle municipality by school share is Roseland Boro: 51.8% schools, 18.5% county, 29.6% municipal. School share on that same sheet runs from Orange City Twp at 14.9% to West Orange Twp at 62.0%.
Class 2 residential net assessments in this county changed from $74,949,604,670 to $77,793,095,070, up 3.8%, on 152,520 parcels with both a prior net and a 2026 net. That is the assessment roll for this county. It is not a list of which towns rose the most, and it is not an appraisal.
Estimated class 2 tax on the towns with both a prior rate and a current rate moved from $2,368,507,365 to $2,216,876,347, down 6.4%. Each of those 21 towns uses its own two rate years. The prior rate is as early as 2024 and the current rate is as late as 2025. This is not one calendar-year county levy. When a town reassesses, the assessment percent and this bill percent are different stories, because the rate falls as the assessments reset.
The largest class share of net assessed value in the 2026 file is Residential at 59.2%.
These are this county’s own figures. The general rate is not comparable across towns until each town’s assessment ratio is applied. The sale-price section states the tax on the same $200,000 sale and the same $500,000 sale after that ratio. Towns stay in legal-name order. State school aid is outside the rate bars.
Tax on a $200,000 or $500,000 sale, 2025
A sale price is not the assessment. In Essex County for 2025, each town’s average ratio turns that price into an assessment, and that town’s general rate is applied to the assessment. On a $500,000 sale, the bill is $5,760 in Irvington Twp (ratio 44.53%, rate 2.587) and $18,991 in Orange City Twp (ratio 94.25%, rate 4.030). The middle bill is $10,516 in West Caldwell Twp. A $200,000 sale uses the same ratio and rate in that town. This is an Abstract of Ratables estimate, not a collector bill, and the ratio is the town average, not an appraisal of one house.
The highest residential estimate in Essex County is $235,818 at 8 WINDERMERE COURT, Livingston Twp, on a net assessment of $9,317,200 and a 2025 general rate of 2.531.
The highest business estimate in Essex County is $18,793,236 at 1200 MORRIS TURNPIKE, Millburn Twp, on a net assessment of $930,819,000 and a 2025 general rate of 2.019.
Owner names are not shown. Each town’s own rate is used, so a higher assessment in a low-rate town can still be a lower tax. Commercial and industrial parcels (class 4A and 4B) are the business list. Apartment buildings are class 4C and are not in that list. This is not a collector’s bill.
Essex County this year
21 municipalities sit on the 2026 assessment file. In this warehouse the loaded general rates for Essex are still 2025 rates against 2026 assessments — so YoY stories that mix those years need the town-page rate-year banner, not a single county number.
Newark City is the municipal-heavy worked example: general rate 3.999 (2025), and on a $300,000 assessed-net illustration about 29% schools / 13% county / 58% municipal of the three-bucket sum (~$11,997/yr before deductions). Extra state school aid can shrink the local school levy; it is not a fourth slice of this bar and it does not make the municipal levy small. How NJ taxes work covers Abbott / SDA aid once.
West Orange Twp sits at the other end of the school-share range on the 2025 sheet (about 62% schools), while Orange City Twp shows a very high municipal share of the local rate (about 76% municipal / 15% schools). Essex is not one “city tax” story and not one “suburban school tax” story.
The median school-share municipality on the 2025 sheet is Roseland Boro. Do not sort the table by general rate and call it a burden ranking — Director’s ratios differ across these towns.
Sources: NJ Division of Taxation MOD-IV and Abstract of Ratables loaded into this site. Estimates are not collector bills. Disclaimer.
Housing stock in Essex County, median year built 1935
On the 2026 file, class 2 houses in Essex County with a year built have a median year of 1935, about 91 years old. Of those 151,915 houses, the largest share was built Before 1940. This is the assessor’s year built. It is not a ranking of towns.
By parcel count, Residential 81.4%, Vacant land 9.9%, Commercial 6.1%, Apartment 1.4%, Industrial 1.0%, Other / unclassified 0.2%, Farm (qualified) <0.1%, Farm (regular) <0.1%. Those percentages are a count of parcels, not a share of tax dollars. The class table uses the tax-base share.
Year built
Before 1940
52.6%
1940–1959
21.0%
1960–1979
10.7%
1980–1999
7.4%
2000–2009
6.1%
2010–2026
2.2%
Assessor building line
Grouped from the assessor’s building abbreviation. One-family, two-family, and condo are the codes that read clearly. Other codes stay in their own group. This is not a bedroom count, and square feet are left off because most records do not include them.
One-family
70,464 63.9%
Two-family
5,443 4.9%
Three-family or more
1,956 1.8%
Condo
4,746 4.3%
Other codes
27,649 25.1%
Ratable base by property class
Share of net assessed value in the MOD-IV parcel file (not the Abstract value columns). Class 15 exempt parcels may be under-counted when net value is zero. This is the tax base mix, not a school rating.
Class
Parcels
Net assessed
% of net
Residential 2
152,592
$77,814,802,770
59.2%
Vacant land 1
18,508
$29,128,345,800
22.2%
Commercial 4A
11,483
$14,233,009,100
10.8%
Industrial 4B
1,944
$3,938,399,400
3.0%
Apartment 4C
2,685
$6,203,378,400
4.7%
Farm (regular) 3A
1
$1,576,500
0.0%
Farm (qualified) 3B
8
$73,300
0.0%
Other / unclassified other
351
$48,452,541
0.0%
Municipalities
Default order is legal name. The general rate is not comparable across towns with different equalized ratios and is not a ranking of tax burden. Percents are shares of school + county + municipal cents on the rate sheet.