Property Owners Seeing Big Value Increases - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Property Owners Seeing Big Value Increases

Property owners in Minot are likely to see the official value of their property rise considerably this year.

Minot Assessor Kevin Ternes says most people will see an increase in the assessed value of their property of between 12 and 14%.

He says the big increase is because of the strong economy and brisk sales of homes last year.

Ternes says in 2012, residential properties sold for an average of 18% over their assessed value, making the assessment increases necessary.

He says the increases are in nearly every area and type of property.

(Kevin Ternes, Minot City Assessor) "We're unable to tell that there's one certain part of the neighborhood or one part of town is farther below what the other parts are so it's been pretty much a flat increase across the city for the most part. We did notice that on some of the newer homes we were a little closer than some of the older homes."

Ternes says commercial property will also see a large increase in value.

On average, commercial property sold for 21% over assessed value last year.

(Kevin Ternes, Minot City Assessor) "All the commercial properties will see some increases too. For instance we had a motel last year that sold for twice what it was assessed at, we have metal buildings, storage buildings, warehouse buildings, shop buildings that are selling for quite a bit more than the city's assessment, apartment buildings continue to sell for more than the city's assessment."

Letters are going out this week to all property owners who will see an increase of 10% or more on their property - and he says 95-hundred of the 13-thousand homeowners in the city will be getting the letters.

He says, even with the big increase in value, your property taxes won't necessarily rise.

That's because of rate cuts by state legislators and the growth in the number of total properties in the city - spreading out the taxation among more people.