Jamestown  (CSi)  The  Jamestown City Board of Equalization, has approved increases to the values used to calculate property taxes.

No residents commented on property values during the meeting.

City Assessor, Jamison Veil,  requested a four percent increase in the value of residential property and a 5 percent increase in valuation of commercial property and vacant lots. The increases are applied  to all properties that were not specifically assessed in the last year.

He said the adjustments are  due to the sales ratio for the year.

In 2016, residential properties were increased by 7 percent and commercial properties by 3 percent for the same reasons.

Veil said the average sale price of a single-family home in Jamestown increased to about $168,000 during the past year compared to less than $160,000 in 2015. The city assessor’s office used about 200 property sales to establish the sales ratio for Jamestown.

Veil said property taxes are also  on  budgets set by the county, city, school district and other agencies. If the budgets remain the same or decrease while the tax base increases, the property tax rate could fall and result in smaller property tax bills.

 

The valuations set by the city are submitted to the Stutsman County Commission for inclusion in its Board of Equalization meeting in July before review by the North Dakota Board of Equalization in August.  Taxes will be calculated after the local governments establish budgets for the 2018 year in October.