By Michael Ryan
WINDHAM - So much for the Good Old Days of more-than-abundant Mortgage Tax payments in the town of Windham.
Government leaders, at a recent meeting, received the first of two annual apportionments from Greene County based on real estate transactions, one in May and a second in December.
The stipend wasn’t bad, totaling $52,979 and 5 cents, if you only consider the fact that officials annually budget $80,000 in anticipated revenues, tapping that source.
Those funds are plugged into the General Fund for various and sundry necessary expenditures, basically being free money.
Looking at it another way, however, town council members could merely rue the reduction compared to the past three or four years, since the pandemic turned the marketplace into a madhouse.
Taking last year alone, during the same six-month period, Windham was on the receiving end of a check for $119,657 from the county.
And the arrival of Jolly ‘Ol St. Nick was especially merry as the town found $154,856 stuffed into its Christmas stocking.
That accounted for a one-year total of, well, you do the math, and while you are at it, figure out what needs to happen between now and the next coming of Santa Claus and you understand the fiscal ruminating.
“We’ll definitely take it but it sure isn’t what it was,” town supervisor Thomas Hoyt said, fondly remembering when Windham was leading every other municipality in reaping what the marketplace sowed.
Windham, in 2023, was the star at the top of the Mortgage Tax tree, taking in more than the combined (and more populous) town and village of Catskill, the traditional busy spot.
But woe is Windham thus far in 2024, with neighboring Hunter already bringing in over $77,000 (combining the town and two villages of Tannersville and Hunter).
A perusal of the list goes as follows (minus the pennies):
—Town of Ashland ($12,581), town and village of Athens ($39,152), town of Cairo ($70,463), town and village of Catskill ($93,590);
Town and village of Coxsackie ($58,167), town of Durham ($25,211), town of Greenville ($51,089), town of Halcott ($895);
Town of Jewett ($25,419), town of Lexington ($17,490), town of New Baltimore ($39,025), and town of Prattsville ($1,828).
While local officials are optimistic about reaching the usual $80,000 reserve by the end of this year, the drop clearly signals a significant change.
Or more accurately, a return to the old normal. “You could read the tea leaves,” Hoyt says. “This really isn’t anything new.
“The market always fluctuates and there has been a downward trend since the peak in 2022 and 2023 when people were leaving the City.
“Mortgage rates are up. It costs more to borrow money. Maybe people are buying less expensive homes or not buying at all. Who knows?”
While the covid-motivated surge appears to be subsiding, all is not all quiet on the Windham front, specifically along South Street.
A development has been slow-moving for the past twenty-four months but as many as eighteen condo units could reportedly soon go on the market.
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