
CENTERVILLE — Yes, Virginia, real estate prices in Centerville are going up.
Whether buying or selling, property owners active in the real estate market probably have experienced one or two involuntary raised eyebrows over the past year. “It’s been a wild year,” City Assessor Mary Wells assured the Centerville Council.
The trend of people paying high dollar for properties is not unique to Centerville, but is happening throughout the county, across the state and even throughout the nation — in places such as Virginia, Wells said.
A strong market in which property is really selling affects assessment numbers greatly, Wells said, before giving council her 2021-2022 assessment report. Values set for 2022 are the basis for 2023 taxes, she noted.
Residential values in Centerville are up between 17 and 30%, depending on which of the nine groupings a home belongs to, Wells said. The different types of homes in Centerville include townhomes, lakeshore properties and downtown properties, to name a few.
For example, to focus on a basic home in Centerville, the citywide median residential value increased by 25.5% over the past year from $280,200 to $352,600. The average residential value increased by 23.5% over the past year from $310,000 to $383,000, Wells said.
The average is calculated by adding up all the individual values and dividing this total by the number of observations. The median is calculated by taking the “middle” value — the value for which half of the observations are larger and half are smaller.
During the past year, Centerville saw 106 total residential sales with 64 “good” residential sales used as the basis for assessment. “Good” sales exclude sales between relatives, foreclosures, new construction, estate sales and vacant land sales.
The sale of a home on Pioneer Lane was used as an example of a home sold during the strong seller’s market last year. In March 2021, the home listed for $289,900 and closed in April for a sale price of $325,000. For valuation purposes, the sale price of that home is used, rather than the listed price. Before it entered the market, that home’s estimated market value in 2021 was $277,000. Using the state-authorized calculating process that must guarantee an increase of between 90 and 105%, the adjusted sale price of that particular home becomes $362,000, and the new estimated market value of homes like it in the city is now $345,200 — an increase of 24.6%.
This new calculation means that everyone’s valuation goes up. But it doesn’t necessarily change the amount of tax that each property will pay. But it does change the tax rate, City Administrator/Engineer Mark Statz said. “A raise in your property value doesn’t necessarily mean a raise in your taxes,” he added.
“Your value is up 25%, but your taxes won’t go up 25%, probably,” Wells said.
Last November, property owners will have received their estimated city tax bill for 2022, which doesn’t include school district, county or other taxes. The Anoka County notices with each property’s valuation will be sent out by the end of March with tax statements payable in 2023.
For appeal options, property owners are invited to contact the assessor’s office at 763-412-1966, Ext. 1, or by email at mnassessormary@gmail.com. Residents can meet with county officials or attend the April 13 assessment meeting at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Contributing Writer Loretta Harding can be reached by emailing news@presspubs.com or calling 651-407-1200.