Cass building values drop

WALKER - Cass County land values have remained stable, but countywide building values have dropped 5 percent in the last year, Assessor Steve Kuha reported to Cass County commissioners Tuesday.

May Township, which is down 21 percent. Only in Ponto Lake Township near Backus has Kuha seen building values continue to increase in the last year.

Property sales have declined from a 2004 peak of 1,581 to only 651 in 2008, but the average sale price increased steadily from $145,571 in 2003 to $208,215 in 2007. Average price declined only slightly in 2008 to $204,414.

The 2009 assessment to be used for taxes payable in 2010 will mark the first time in his 26 years as county assessor that Kuha has seen the county's estimated overall market value drop. It declined 1.5 percent from $7,084,000,000 in 2008 to $6,975,155,800 in 2009.

New construction value has dropped 27.2 percent in the last year, he added. There were only 167 new home starts in the last year in the county, compared with 524 in the year preceding the 2005 assessment.

Because the Legislature has phased out a tax break formerly available to people whose property took a large valuation increase in a single prior year, the county's overall taxable market value will be up 3.3 percent this year.