Posted: 5/1/07
Questions, issues raised during Board of Review hearing April 23
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
A handful of city residents posed questions and voiced concerns over property tax valuations Monday, April 23 during the annual Board of Review hearing, which was convened by the Caledonia City Council.
Houston County Assessor Tom Dybing and appraiser Rich Sather were on hand to field questions and explain how the countyís appraisal process works. Sather noted the county appraised about 50 percent of the homes in the city during the past year, and the updated appraisals had an impact on valuations this spring.
Dave Wedl, owner of Good Times Restaurant and Bar, 118 Bissen Street, asked why an acre of land located in the industrial park would be valued as much as an acre of land with highway frontage.
"Wouldnít the acre on the highway, with better access be more valuable and appraised by the county accordingly?" he asked. Sather replied commercial property valuations within the city are pretty much uniform. Dybing admitted the countyís current process for valuating commercial property needs to be changed. The county is planning to start valuing commercial property on a square-foot basis and will also give more weight to location.
Commercial property valuations in Caledonia experienced a substantial jump this year, according to Dybing. The first acre of commercial property went from $47,000 to $85,000, and every acre after that is valued at $3,500 per acre.
Gary Becker wondered if the price La X Fabricating paid for 10 acres of land between Hokah and La Crescent at Millerís Corner (over $55,000 per acre) had any impact on commercial property valuations in the county. Dybing explained the county throws out the very high and very low land price transactions when figuring property values. And the $55,000-per-acre price was definitely thrown out.
Stan Bahr asked why his home, which was built 13 years ago, was listed as being eight years old on the proposed tax valuation he received from the county.
Dybing explained there are two different formulas appraisers use when determining the value of a home - actual age and effective age.
"If you take very good care of your home, maintain it properly, even though a house might be 20 years old, the appraiser would probably use the effective age formula, and appraise it as a 15-year-old house," Dybing noted.
"But my furnace and singles are still 13 years old," Bahr countered.
"But if you were going to sell your home, the price you would list it for, and possibly get for it would be more because you have taken good care of it and itís worth more than a 13-year-old house that wasnít properly maintained. Thatís the way our appraisers are trained to do their work. Our valuations are usually lower than what you would try to sell your house for anyway."
Dybing was asked if home valuations are figured on a county-wide basis. He said they are not. The county conducts a sales study for each community in the county. A 2,000-square-foot home in Spring Grove would not have the same value as a similar 2,000-square-foot home in La Crescent. Residential property values are location-driven.
But, Dybing added, because there just arenít enough commercial property transactions in the county, commercial sales are based on a county-wide average.
According to Dybingís figures, property values in Caledonia went up an average of six percent across the board.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com