What the Department of Assessment Does

Assessing real property means establishing an assessed value on land and improvements to serve as the basis for property taxes. There are approximately 416,000 parcels of land in Nassau County. The Nassau County Department of Assessment assesses each parcel.

State law requires that all real property in Nassau be placed in one of the following four classes:

• Class One - one, two and three-family homes and residential condominiums of three stories or less.
• Class Two - apartments, residential cooperatives and residential condominiums of four stories or more.
• Class Three - public utility equipment.
• Class Four - all other property (principally commercial, industrial and vacant property)

Nassau's cities and villages have the right to decide their own assessments for village or city tax purposes. Many villages, however, do use the county assessment roll as a basis for their assessments.