DETROIT LAKES — Property values are expected to increase 10% to 50% in Becker County this year — with hunting land and lakeshore property leading the way, according to Becker County Assessor Lisa Will.
Other counties in the area, including Otter Tail, Wadena, Todd, Clay and Hubbard, are seeing similar valuation hikes, she said.
“It’s pretty much the same as last year,” she said. “Lake (properties) are up a little bit more than last year … lakes are going up around 30%, especially the more popular, bigger lakes.”
Hunting land values are up about 40%, she said. “It’s a hot, hot commodity here — people want land,” she said. Often located on the east side of Becker County, hunting land is usually wooded and often has some tillable land for feed plots. The size varies widely, “anything from 20 acres to 200 acres,” she said. “People just want land, and we’re seeing more cash sales than in prior years … Some of these sales aren’t even hitting a Realtor,” she added. “It just gets picked up — someone sells it.”
Agricultural land on the west side of Becker County is going up about 20% in value, she said. On the east side of the county, it’s going up around 5% to 10%.
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Residential properties “kind of depend on where you’re at,” Will said, but they are going up in value 10%-20% on average, she said. The value hike is “probably higher with acreages out in the townships,” she added. “People want land — they want space,” she said.
Commercial properties are seeing a value increase of about 10%. “That’s kind of been the trend here the past couple years,” she said.
While valuation increases can be alarming for property owners, Will cautioned that “just because the value is going up, doesn’t mean taxes are going to increase by the same percentage.”
She recently talked to a township resident whose valuation went up 25% last year, but who ended up having just an 11% increase in actual property taxes.
The property tax levy is set by elected leaders of cities, counties and school districts depending on their budget needs. If the 2024 budgets of cities, townships and the county stay the same or go up a little, then taxes paid by property owners will not rise at the same rate as the value, Will said.
At any rate, about 34,200 property valuation notices will be mailed to Becker County property owners starting March 31.
Those valuations don’t come out of thin air — they are based on sales data from similar properties, and the county’s estimated market values must land between 90% and 105% of the values determined by those property sales.
“We had 555 good residential sales countywide, so there were plenty of sales for us and the Department of Revenue (to use to estimate values),” Will said. The estimated market values are based on property sales that occurred from October 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022.
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These sales can be found on the Becker County website at http://www.co.becker.mn.us/ using the online services tab and selecting sales search .
Property owners may not be too happy about rising values, but the real estate market has been extremely strong in Becker County due to high demand and a low inventory of properties, Will said. “We’ve definitely got growth going on here, which is a good thing. People don’t like seeing their values go up, but that’s part of a growing market.”
The upside of living in a growing community is that Becker County’s tax base grew by more than $82 million in new construction last year — a pretty typical amount, Will said.
There were 182 new homes built in the county last year, and residential construction outpaced commercial growth, she added.
Have questions? Your valuation notice will explain how to appeal, and whether your appeal will go before a local board of appeal or directly to the county assessor’s office.
Local boards of appeal begin meeting on April 13 and run through April 27. This is the time to appeal your value and classifications for taxes payable in 2024. Once you receive your truth in taxation notice in November, it’s far too late to appeal.
If you have questions on your valuation or want to appeal, call the Becker County Assessor’s Office at 218-846-7300.
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