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The
Assessor's duties and what they mean to you
What are
the Assessor's duties?
The Assessor is charged with several administrative and statutory duties. However, the primary duty
and responsibility of the Assessor is to assess the true and full market value of all real property
within their jurisdiction, except that which is otherwise provided by law. This would include
residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural classes of property.
General
Misconceptions About the Assessor's Work
The Assessor does not:
 collect
taxes.
calculate
taxes.
determine
tax rate.
set
policy for the Board of Review.
The Assessor is concerned with value not taxes. Each of the four branches of government in
Valley City (the School Board, City Commission, County Commission, and Park Board) adopt their
own budgets during public hearings and establish their own tax rates (Mils) in order to meet
their particular budgetary needs. These four tax levies are then combined into one tax
rate for the community.
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What is Market Value?
Market value is an estimate of what price your real estate would sell for on the open
market. The open market is sometimes referred to as "arms length transactions".
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How
Does the Assessor Estimate Market Value?
To estimate the market value of your property, the
Assessor generally uses the following three approaches.
The first approach is to find properties that are comparable to yours which have
sold recently. Local conditions peculiar to your property
are taken into consideration. The assessor also uses sales
ratio studies to determine the general level of assessment in
a community, in order to adjust for local conditions.
This method is referred to as the SALES APPROACH and is
usually considered the most important approach in determining the value
of residential property.
The second approach is the COST APPROACH and is an estimate of how many dollars, at current labor
and material prices, it would take to replace your property with
one similar to it. In the event that a building or addition is not new, then
appropriate amounts for depreciation and obsolescence would be deducted from the
replacement value. Value of the land is then added to the building value to arrive
at the total estimate of value for the property.
The INCOME APPROACH is a third method used for income properties, such as an apartment
or office building. This approach values your property according to its ability to
produce income and what another investor may pay for the property in order to gain its income.
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Exemptions and Credits
North Dakota law provides for a number of exemptions and credits, including Homestead Credit
and Real Estate Exemptions. It is the property owner's responsiblitiy to apply for exemptions
as provided by law. If the property you were occupying as a homestead is sold, or if you cease
to use the property as a homestead you are required to report this to the assessor in whose
jurisdiction the property is located.
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