What this site is, where its data comes from, and what the numbers on a property record actually mean.
NY Property Peek is a map of New York State's tax parcels. Search an
address, or click anywhere on the map, and it shows you the assessment
record for the nearest parcel: when the building was put up, how big it
is, how it's classified, which school district it falls in, and what the
assessor has it valued at. Where the state publishes lot-line data, the
parcel boundaries are drawn on the map too.
It exists because looking a property up shouldn't take ten minutes. The
same information is public and already out there, but it is spread
across sixty-odd county GIS portals, each with its own search box, its
own map viewer, and its own idea of what a parcel lookup should feel
like. This site puts the whole state on one map and gets out of the way.
It is built for casual curiosity — whose lot is that, where does the
line run, when was this house built — not for title work or professional
land research.
Everything on the map comes from New York State's published GIS tax
parcel data, which the state assembles from what each county's assessor
files. Two separate datasets are involved:
Parcel points — one record per parcel, about 5.5
million of them, covering all 62 counties. This is where the address,
year built, square footage, property class, school district and
assessed and market values come from.
Parcel boundaries — the lot-line polygons drawn over
the map when you zoom in. This is a separate dataset with genuinely
partial coverage: only 38 of the 62 counties publish it. Where a
county doesn't, the map simply draws nothing rather than showing you
an approximation.
Map tiles are from CARTO and OpenStreetMap contributors. Street-level
imagery, where shown, is Google Street View.
Each county's page carries a breakdown of what its own records actually
contain — browse them here. Those figures are
counted directly from the dataset, never estimated, and any field a
county doesn't populate is named as missing rather than quietly filled
in.
What the fields mean
Assessment records use terms that don't always mean what they sound
like. The ones you'll run into on this site:
Property class
A three-digit code New York State assigns every parcel describing how
it is used — "One family year-round residence", "Residential vacant
land", "Apartments", and so on. It describes present use as the
assessor recorded it, not zoning and not what the land is allowed to
become.
Assessed value
The value the local assessor puts on the parcel for tax purposes. It
is not a market price, and in many municipalities it is deliberately a
fraction of one — assessments are made at a stated ratio of market
value that varies by town and by year.
Full market value
The assessed value converted back to an estimated market figure using
that municipality's equalization rate. It is closer to what a property
might sell for, but it is still an assessor's estimate on an
assessment cycle — not an appraisal, and not a sale price.
Land value
The portion of the assessment attributed to the land alone, before
anything built on it.
Year built
The year of the principal structure, as filed. Renovations,
replacements and additions are inconsistently reflected, and some
counties don't record it at all.
Living area
Finished, heated square footage of the residence. Garages, unfinished
basements and outbuildings are generally excluded — though what counts
varies between assessors.
School district
The district the parcel is assessed in. School district lines follow
their own boundaries and routinely cross town and county lines, so
this is not something you can infer from the address.
SWIS code and SBL
The identifiers that actually pin a parcel down. SWIS is a six-digit
code for the assessing municipality; SBL (section–block–lot, also
called the print key or tax map number) identifies the parcel within
it. Together they're how a parcel is referenced on a tax roll — a
street address is a convenience, this is the key.
Acreage
Lot size as recorded on the assessment roll. For parcels where the
state also publishes a boundary polygon, the drawn shape and the
recorded acreage come from different sources and can disagree
slightly.
What this site can't tell you
Assessment data is a snapshot of what each county assessor filed, on
each county's own schedule. It is the right tool for a quick look and
the wrong tool for anything that has to be correct:
It is not a title search. Nothing here establishes
ownership, easements, liens, rights-of-way or covenants.
It is not a survey. Boundary lines are mapping data,
not a surveyed description, and should never be used to site a fence,
settle a line dispute, or plan construction.
It is not current. Records lag reality by months or
years, and a recent sale, subdivision, demolition or renovation may
not be reflected.
Coverage is uneven. Counties differ in which fields
they populate at all. Rather than paper over that, each county page
states plainly which fields its records leave blank.
For anything that matters legally or financially, go to the county
clerk, the assessor's office, or a licensed surveyor or title company.
How it's paid for
The site is free to use and carries advertising to cover hosting and the
data pipeline behind it. What that means for your data is set out in the
privacy policy.