evaluation descriptors into their database and has had a computer
program in place for a few years now. In the old days, assessor staff
often did a windshield property inspection to verify their information
was generally correct. Now all they need is to track sales and
building permit issuances to run their assessments. So if ten houses
in the descriptor group your house is in sell, then these numbers lead
to your property value increase plus any percentage for the mayor and
council needs. This calculation takes about 5 milliseconds and there
is no documentary trail to argue in court. Remember the incendiary
housing market of 5-6 years ago - all those inflated sales drove the
property values assessed today. With no decrease in the mill rates,
the city became awash with scads of money and fat budgets became the
norm. One of the hitches in this process is that sellers will often do
remodeling in order to boost the price, but if you have not remodeled
your house then the two should not be in the same descriptor class,
but the assessor does not allow that. So if two people each own a 2
bedroom 900 square foot craft house but one guy remodels to convert
his to a Taj Mahal and it sells as such - guess what your shack is
valued like a Taj Mahal, too. The city is now bankrupting the average
home owner - folks like Dyna got smart and got out - others might
follow suit. I know if I had the bread I sure would, too.
There are some other ways to assess the valuation. One would be to
consult your insurance company for their estimate of the cost to
replace. There are professional organizations that aggregate data for
building construction cost indexes - architectural engineering and
construction engineering firms do this as routine for contract
bidding. One such firm is the R.S. Means Company and our Hennepin
Library has a copy of one of their 1996 indexes. Or one can take a
selling price, if it is greater than 10 years old, and apply the
Consumer Price Index to it to get a +-10% estimate of current value.
Using any of these methods is very likely to show the City Assessors
numbers are pure fiction. I am confident there are some very sharp
pencil readers out there who will chime in and flesh out more detail
to this post.
John Ferman
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kingfield Neighborhood
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