Every New Jersey municipality has an average ratio β the typical relationship between assessed values and actual sale prices in that town. The common level range is that ratio plus or minus 15% (N.J.S.A. 54:51A-6).
Because assessments drift between revaluations while the market moves, almost no New Jersey town assesses at exactly 100% of market value. The range is how the state accounts for that drift without requiring a revaluation every year.
It is set per municipality, not per county β all 564 of them β and it is republished annually.
The range is why two identical over-assessments in different towns can produce completely different answers. Your neighbour's town might have a ratio of 52% and yours 100%, and the same dollar gap clears the band in one and not the other.
It is also the reason New Jersey appeals cannot be assessed by eyeballing your notice. The arithmetic is municipality-specific and it changes every year.
Brigantine City's 2026 average ratio is 52.07%, giving a common level range of 44.26% to 59.88%.
A home assessed at $260,000 in Brigantine implies a market value of about $499,000 at the average ratio. The owner only has a case if they can prove the property is worth less than roughly $434,000 β the point where the ratio crosses the 59.88% upper limit.
It is set by statute (N.J.S.A. 54:51A-6). The 15% corridor is the state's tolerance for normal variation between assessments and sale prices, so small discrepancies do not trigger a change either way.
Ratios above 100% are treated as 100%, per the Director's own certification table. About 30 municipalities publish one in a given year, usually where assessments were set at a market peak.
The Division of Taxation publishes the certification of average ratios and common level ranges each year as a single table covering every municipality in all 21 counties.