What the assessor looks at

Whether the market is up or down, the county assessor's work remains the same. The assessor's office looks at the market value through a 12-month sales study looking at all arm's length sales (those not involving family members) for all types of property.

Assessors look at what exists on a particular property, how it is used - whether as a home or business - and for sales in a representative area. If there are few property sales in Riverton, for example, the county may look to Cuyuna for a representative area for comparison.

In terms of taxes, county assessors first determine the market value of each individual property within the county. Also, state-mandated class rates are assigned to each property based on how a property is used. Market value and class rate are used to figure out the tax capacity rate, which is how much a property can be taxed. For example, a house in Brainerd valued at $250,000 with a class rate of 1 percent has a tax capacity of $2,500.

After looking at revenues and budgets, taxing authorities like cities and counties then determine how much they need in property taxes. If property values increase and create a higher tax capacity, a city may collect more taxes even if it doesn't raise its tax rate.

County assessors have to operate within a state-mandated guideline. The state Department of Revenue keeps an eye on the counties' work, letting the county move in a preset bracket not lower than 90 percent of the median, or middle number in a series, and not higher than 105 percent. The state may mandate a percentage increase for a particular area if the sales study indicates the county was not high enough in its estimated market value.

The lakes area real estate market took off in the mid- to late-1980s and never looked back.