Ask Questions About Your Property’s Market Value

The annual Open Book meeting gives property owners a chance to discuss the estimated market value of their properties with county and city officials.

Got a question about your property valuation notice? You can ask your questions at the Hopkins Open Book meeting that takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. May 7 in the Raspberry Rooms at City Hall. Attendees can meet with Hennepin County appraisers to discuss property values or classifications that they believe are incorrect. Property owners do not have to wait for the meeting to talk to the appraisers, though. Those with questions can call the number on their evaluation notice to discuss the value with an appraiser.

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Why Was The Duplex Deal Worth $340,000?

The final offer was much higher than the market value. Patch explores why that’s the case.

If you look for the value of the 531 Blake Road duplex on Hennepin County property records, you’ll find a figure less than half the $340,000 that the city offered before the deal fell through. Those records put the market value for the property at $162,000. But that low figure mainly arises because there’s a lag from the time the appraisal was done until it’s published. Click here to read why the deal fell through. When the Metropolitan Council was trying to acquire the property in 2010 or 2011, it obtained an appraisal that came back with a $245,000 to $265,000 value, property owner David Gimberline said. That’s closer, but it’s still nearly $100,000 off the city’s final offer. An appraisal Gimberline had done in 2005 or 2006 comes much …

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Falling Condo Prices Headline Further Hopkins Market Drops

Hopkins’ overall market value dropped 4.3 percent.

Hopkins saw another year of dropping property values—fueled in part by plunging condo prices, according to annual assessment data reviewed at Tuesday’s City Council work session. Condos, which plummeted 27 percent, saw the biggest drop of any category, by far. Some complexes had values fall by almost 50 percent, said Mike Smerdon, a Hennepin County residential appraiser. “Our condos really tanked,” he said. The pain was particularly acute at Westbrooke, Oakridge Lofts and Summit on 7. In Westbrooke, one-bedroom condos that were selling for $80,000 five or six years ago were in the $20,000s for the assessment period, which ran from September 2010 to October 2011. “There’s just not much going on over there, really,” Smerdon said. At the …

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Just How Much Value Has Redevelopment Brought to Hopkins?

The community has seen substantial growth in its redevelopment districts.

Redevelopment is a huge focus in Hopkins. The community has no undeveloped properties, so builders must look to existing sites whenever they want to bring in something new. This has brought residents new places to live, new places to work and new places to play. But just as importantly, the values of redeveloped properties have surged—taking some of the tax burden off local homeowners. When the Marketplace & Main project is fully online, Hopkins should have about a 600 percent increase in values for its six tax increment financing districts, according to a presentation at Tuesday’s City Council work session. (TIF districts take advantage of increased values that result from redevelopment by “capturing” the extra tax revenue coming in and …

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Civics 101

Property Values and Property Taxes

Understanding how property taxes are set and collected will help you know how much bang you're getting for your tax dollar.

Understanding how property taxes are set and collected is the key to judging whether they're fair. Hopkins Patch attempts to explain property taxes in our first edition of Civics 101, a recurring column devoted to explaining different aspects of local government. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see covered, e-mail Hopkins Patch at james.warden@patch.com. What is the relationship between property valuations and tax bills? An indirect one. That's because unlike with an income tax or sales tax, a property's value doesn't alone dictate your your tax bill. Instead, the entity that sets your property tax first decides how much money it needs to raise, in total, by raising property taxes throughout its district. This is called the …

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