Dear Neighbor,
Recently I have received a lot of questions about property values. The questions were prompted by the counties issuing annual estimated market valuation statements for 2023.
There seems to be some confusion about those statements. Some things that are important to understand about estimated market value statements:
- Estimated market valuation statements are not a property tax statement.
- The statements reflect the estimated market value of your property based on real estate sales of similar properties in the past year.
- The estimated market value will be used in the formula to determine your property taxes payable in 2023. Tax statements are issued later in the year once the counties, townships, cities, and school districts have developed their annual budget and set their preliminary property tax levies.
- If you believe your market valuation is in error, you must appeal that now. I will be too late when property tax statements for taxes payable in 2023 are sent out.
Over the past two years, the real estate market in both Crow Wing and Aitkin County has seen a substantial increase in the sale price of almost all types of property, in particular residential property. In simplest terms real estate values tend to go up when there is shortage of property for sale and there are qualified buyers that are willing to pay more to acquire a property.
There is a lot of speculation as to the cause of the increases. The opinions range from blaming recent improvements in rural broad band, disruptions caused by COVID related forced working from home situations, the significant federal COVID related direct cash payments to citizens, and an abandonment of the metro area for a safer community environment and less restrictive public school environments in rural Minnesota.
The reality is individual property owners make a personal decision as to why they elect to sell their property. Buyers make a similar individual determination of where they want to buy property and how much they are willing to pay.
Estimated market valuations reflect the real estate market looking back over the past year. If you believe your 2023 estimated market value is in error, please ensure you contact your county land service office or county assessor’s office to determine if an appeal is in order. For Crow Wing County, that is (218) 824-1010 or https://www.crowwing.us/162/Taxes. For Aitkin County, that is (218) 927-7327, or assessor@co.aitkin.mn.us.
Sincerely,
Dale