Tax appeals continue to soar in Rahway, with 570 appeals filed by this year’s April 1 deadline. That’s more than twice the 224 appeals filed last year and more than four times the 128 appeals filed in 2010.

Those figures include appeals filed both with the state Tax Court and with the Union County Board of Taxation, according to Tax Assessor Richard Kulman.

Of the 224 appeals filed last year, about half of the properties saw their assessments reduced, following property tax judgments by the county Board of Taxation. In 2010, more than 50 properties that filed appeals had their assessments reduced.

It’s a common story around New Jersey, which last year saw almost four times as many appeals as in 2007 — “the highest mark in almost 20 years,” according to this Star-Ledger report from March. Statewide at least, the “high number of appeals can be attributed to outdated assessments and the languishing housing market.” The story mentions one service  that analyzed 2.1 million homes in New Jersey and found that more than 450,000 — or 1 in 5 — were likely to be assessed higher than their market value.