cityhall-488Jamestown (CSi) Jamestown values used to establish property taxes have been increased for residential and commercial properties.

At the Jamestown Board of Equalization meeting Tuesday afternoon at City Hall, City Assessor, Darrel Wollan, recommended values of residential properties be increased seven percent and commercial properties will be increased three percent. Wollan said the values had been rising faster over the past five years.

Members of the Jamestown City Council, serving as the city Board of Equalization, unanimously approved the valuations including the recommended increases.

The recommendations were based on a comparison of the sales price of property that was sold in Jamestown to the value set for taxation on those properties.

Assessed values of residential property in Jamestown were, on average, at 85.2 percent of the sales price. North Dakota Century Code requires the assessed value to be at least 90 percent of the actual sales price.

Assessed value of commercial property was at 92 percent of the actual sales price. The 3 percent increase would boost the sales ratio to 95 percent. This is above the 90 percent threshold to meet state law but could limit future value increases.

The increases in valuation only impacts one area of the formula used to calculate property taxes. The other portion, budgets of government agencies, won’t be finalized until October. If the budgets remain steady or decline, property taxes could also remain steady or decline.