Property valuation up by 4.31 percent
Source: Beatrice Daily Sun, by Keith Rydberg
August 28, 2007
The effects of urban sprawl in the northern half of Gage County can be seen in the county's property valuation as indicated by noticeable changes in agricultural land and real estate values.
The total amount of property valuation in the county for 2007 is $1.56 billion, an increase of $64.3 million, or 4.31 percent, from $1.49 billion in 2006.
Much of this increase came from a 98.9 percent increase in valuation growth, or new construction in the county. There was $38.83 million in new construction in the county listed for the 2006-2007 fiscal year compared to $19.5 million for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.
Personal property valuations listed at $75.4 million had the highest increase from a percentage standpoint. The valuations had an increase of 29.58 percent, or $17.2 million, from the 2006 valuation of $58.2 million.
Gage County Assessor Patti Milligan said this increase was largely because of an extensive renovation project undertaken by a company within the county that included the purchase of new equipment. The effect on the company's valuation was enough to affect the entire county's personal property valuation.
Milligan said she could not identify the company undertaking the renovation project.
In terms of actual dollars, real estate had the largest increase with a $44.3 million increase over the 2006 figure of $1.38 billion to a new valuation of $1.43 billion. However, this only calculates to a 3.20 percentage increase overall.
Milligan said the real estate increase was largely because of a jump in the price of agricultural land in the county which, in turn, required ag land values to be increased by her office. When the ag land values increased, so did the valuations of many of the townships in the county.
She said development of rural subdivisions in the northern end of the county caused valuations to be affected. In addition, the sales of acreages in those areas were more than what raw ag land would sell for on the market.
The most noticeable valuation change was in Cortland, where Milligan said records of recent property sales in that town showed property valuations were ranging around 85 percent of market value. State standards require property valuations to be within 92 to 100 percent of market value.
“I think with Cortland, the reason why the values were found to be low was the whole Lincoln influence,” Milligan said. “Our ratio was too low based on what homes in that area are selling for compared to what we had the homes valued at in our office.”
Cities having the most valuation in the county were once again Beatrice and Wymore. The assessed valuation for Beatrice and the Beatrice Municipal Airport Authority was $502 million. Wymore had an assessed valuation of $30.4 million. Cortland had an assessed valuation of $24.8 million while Adams was assessed at $24.2 million.
The west central area of the county also showed signs of growth this year as Blakely Township located west of Beatrice had the highest valuation with $80.1 million. Midland Township, which contains the majority of Beatrice, was second with a $74.9 million valuation. Other townships included Highland Township with $71.6 million and Adams Township with $69.3 million.
Centrally assessed property, which includes utilities, railroads and pipelines, had an increase of 5.67 percent from $48 million in 2006 to $50.8 million in 2007.
Milligan said with the valuation changes, property owners, especially in the northern half of Gage County, may see the values of their properties increase by several thousand dollars which will also affect the county budget.
“There will definitely be an increase in the county budget,” Milligan said. “These new appraisals have certainly made a difference in property valuations, not so much this year perhaps but the county's valuation has increased in the last four years. What will happen in the future, I really can't say.”
