When it comes to owning a home, you need to factor in property taxes when considering your monthly expenses. It’s important to understand how they’re assessed and how they differ across cities and counties.

There are several factors that are considered when determining your property taxes. As a result, every city will assess them slightly differently.

Assessed Value of Property
This is the most obvious and common factor on your property taxes. It’s important to note that the assessed value is not necessarily market value but what value the city or county gives your property.

Assessed Value of Other Properties
Property values are assessed annually and as the taxes of other properties change, it can effect the taxes assessed to your home.

Schools
The quality of schools and the cost to keep them running can be a big factor in how high or low your property taxes are. Even if you don’t have children in the schools, you will still be required to pay this portion of your taxes.

City Population
The size of the population where you live can play a role in the size of your property taxes. The more people paying taxes will help reduce the price tag assessed to you.

Local Businesses
The more businesses in your area will also help reduce your property taxes. Their business tax will help offset the expenses of the city and county.

Special Assessments
Each year, your city and/or county might come across unexpected expenses and improvements that the population will have to help cover. Examples could include street improvements or water lines.

You can visit your county’s website to see what your property taxes are for this year and projections for future assessments and taxes.

For example, if you’re a resident of Dakota County, you can do a Property Information Search to get all of the information you need.

If you have any questions on understanding your property taxes, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are always happy to educate and guide you through all aspects of homeownership.