News Flash

A Message from Wright County Assessor Tony Rasmuson

The Wright County Assessor’s office recently completed the 2022 property assessment. Proposed 2022 valuations for property taxes payable in 2023 will be mailed out Tuesday, March 29. Property owners receive a Notice of Valuation and Classification annually notifying them of the most recent assessed value and classification which will play a part in determining the portion of property taxes they will pay the following year (2023 in this case).

This year these notices may catch the attention of property owners more than in a typical year. This is due to the atypical real estate market that has impacted all of Wright County and surrounding areas over the past couple of years. Substantially increased sale prices being paid for properties across the county has directly resulted in significantly increased estimated market valuations.  

As property owners begin receiving the 2022 Valuation Notices, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. In Minnesota, the Assessor is statutorily required to value every property at 100% of its market value as of January 2^nd each year based on market data which is acquired mainly through the verification of sales data. In order to remain in compliance with state statutes, all jurisdictions must have a sales ratio in the range of 90-105% of sales price once the property assessment is finished.
2. The data used in the analysis for the 2022 Assessment includes arm’s length real estate transactions that occurred from October 1^st, 2020, through September 30^th, 2021.  

• Wright County residential market: 
   2,281 arm’s length sales were verified and analyzed with a 77.21% starting ratio. This indicates that on average, properties were selling for nearly 23% more than the 2021 Estimated Market Value.
• Market condition adjustments on average for Wright County were approximately 20 percent (positive) on a countywide basis in order to comply with the statutory requirement. Ultimately the adjustments are applied to all residential property countywide for property valuation purposes by the assessor’s office.

The value increases are not unique to Wright County, a recent poll of counties located regionally similar to Wright was taken and the property assessment results for residential valuations are very similar – Anoka (23 percent), Benton (17 percent), Carver (20 percent), Chisago (24 percent), Dakota (17 percent), Hennepin (18 percent suburbs, 10 percent Minneapolis), Isanti (23 percent), Kanabec (21 percent), Kandiyohi (21 percent), LeSuer (21 percent), McLeod (20 percent), Meeker (21 percent), Mille Lacs (24 percent), Morrison (20 percent), Pine (21 percent), Ramsey (13 percent), Renville (21 percent), Rice (16 percent), Scott (23 percent), Sherburne (21 percent), Sibley (19 percent), Stearns (21 percent), Todd (22 percent), Washington (21 percent) and Wright (20 percent).

What’s the impact on my property taxes? Increasing property valuations are not representative of what to expect to pay for 2023 property taxes. When the entire market is changing at the pace in which we are experiencing, almost all property types are seeing increases in value. The actual impact on property taxes is going to depend on local budgets which will be set by locally elected officials in the fall of 2022 and on any changes to property tax statutes set by state legislators. If all other factors stayed the same, most importantly local budgets and current state property tax statutes, property owners would not see a major increase in 2023 payable property taxes, if any at all.

Many residential property owners that have applied and currently qualify for homestead on their property may be entitled to the special property tax refund in 2023 due to the market value increases for the 2022 property assessment. For more information regarding property tax refunds, please visit the Minnesota Department of Revenue website for more information at: https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/property-tax-refund 

For more information regarding the 2022 Wright County property assessment, you can visit our webpage at www.co.wright.mn.us/134/Assessor .