Rising house sales are county’s tax gain

A revived housing market has raised Westchester County”™s mortgage tax revenue at midyear to a level not seen since 2008 before the Great Recession sent the market into a prolonged slump.

Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni said the county”™s approximately $7.55 million in mortgage tax receipts through June was an increase of more than 22 percent from the same period last year.

In 2008, the county reaped nearly $10.8 million in mortgage taxes through the first half of the year. That figure was more than double the county”™s revenue from mortgages in the first half of 2009, when revenue plummeted to approximately $5.27 million.

The county took in approximately $6.48 million in mortgage tax revenue in the first half of 2010 and approximately $6.59 million for the same period in 2011.

“We are hopeful that the improvement we are seeing in our local real estate market will result in a steady increase in this important revenue source in the second half of the year,” Idoni said in a press release.