Did Property Values Drop in Morris?

Remember what I said about not getting sticker shock when your property tax statements came out.  Oh, and by the way, they aren’t property tax statements, they are proposed property tax statements.  The actual tax statements will come out next year.  Well, the proposed property tax statements did come out and a new question has been raised about property tax values in Morris.  The answer is no, as a rule, property values did not drop in Morris.  

I received a call from a homeowner because they got their proposed property tax statement and their home value dropped, they thought.  They were very concerned.  I explained that their home value did not drop, but an artificial adjustment, mandated by the State Legislature, reduced the market value of their property for taxing purposes only.  In other words, their taxable home value drop.  This is different then their actual home value.  

In my case, the “Taxable Market Value” on my proposed property tax statement was $111,800 for 2011.  For 2012, it is $84,600.  The difference is not a reduction in the value of my home, but the net result of a value credit that was mandated by the State.  If I go to the County web site, www.co.stevens.mn.us and click on the Real Estate Tax Info section and follow the links, I will find the tax information for my property.  It indicates a Market Value of $111,800, not $84,600.  If yours did change, it may actually be from a market shift from last year.  Some values do change.  Typically, it is based upon actual sales of property like yours.    

The overall proposed tax increase for my property was 4.3%.  My county taxes appear to be going up less than 1%.  My city taxes appear to be going up almost 11%, but since the original information was sent to the county for this proposed statement, the city has decided to freeze its taxes.  The original increase request was 7.6% .  With the freeze, this proposed tax number should come down to almost nothing.  My school district taxes appear to be going up about 1%.  The actual tax statement that comes out after the beginning of the year will probably show an increase of less than 1%.

Keep in mind that I have a homesteaded property and the State Legislature gave the value reduction credit to homesteaded property.  Non-homesteaded property, commercial property and agricultural property didn’t get that break and will probably see higher taxes.  However, they shouldn’t have the confusion over the value reductions.