Eden Prairie – Property Value Assessment

Anyone live in Eden Prairie? And recently receive their Property Tax Information Valuation Notice?

I received mine this week, and although I expected a hike, WOW was I surprised. The value of my house, with no changes of any kind, increased by 33%. Just wondering what others are seeing?

I just did a Zillow search on sold houses in my area, and out of around 100 houses sold, only 2 sold for more than my house is valued at, and my house is basically the same as every other house.

Never had to do an appeal before, but I am thinking this is out of line, may go down that rabbit hole?!?!?

Don’t worry when property values go down they will asses your property lower, um no! It’s a perfect time for government to grab tax dollars while property values are high. Good luck

Yeah, money grab, definitely. But they overvalued, considerably, even by Zillow, Redfin, RE/MAX and other site estimates. Overvalued = over taxed.

I see they make it sooooooo easy to appeal also, great!?!? And give less than 30 days to get the appeal accepted for review. Going to assume I will be fighting a lot of other EP residents for my time to appeal with these values.

I always thought that the city/county should be forced to buy your house at a percent (95% or so) of their assessed market value if you believe it is too high.

That might put some constraint on their valuations.

i would contact the city/county. its possible they made a mistake although not likely. If you have made no updates you have a very good argument to make that the increase is excessive. I know for example, that my uncle lives in Carver county and many times he has had to call the city/county to demand to know why his taxes increased so much when his house has has remained the same and they have agreed with him and made adjustments

We need to remember the value also includes the land… you don’t necessarily have to do improvements for the value to increase. Some people go without a property tax hike for years, then get caught up and get sticker shock. Typically appraised tax value is lower than the actual market value… typically. Wouldn’t hurt to dispute it.

If the property tax increase is over a certain % I think you will be entitled to a rebate right? Either way it sucks. Property values have skyrocketed. I just refinanced and I was astounded by the valuation they came back with.

Over many years I have butted heads with God(the assessor) several times. He ws/is never wrong. Even had the review board agree with me when meeting in person and then get the letter denying any change of assessment a week later.

I tried to fight my property value once. They asked if I would be willing to let them come inside to review what they have. I looked at their list of what they had and decide it was better to keep them out and leave it where it was. If you find any tricks, please share.

the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer. you just can’t show up to the appeal and say my house it worth xxxx and not what you say. you have to have proof of your house being worth xxxx. the deck is definitely stacked against you. I’ve been through the appeal process a couple of times. it’s never easy. Townships regularly over value properties. All of the properties. then, only a few people challenge it. The township profits. People need to start going to township meetings and holding their elected officials accountable for the fraud that their boards and hired assessors are committing. It’s a HUGE racket.

Request the deck sheet from the township. this is the worksheet that the assesor uses to compile your value. It does not include like sold properties from the last 3 years. you have to dig that information up on your own.

Living in the NW suburbs of Hennepin County all of our development area is experiencing 25 – 35% valuation increases. With new city lot houses starting at $500,000, it’s no surprise that everyone’s valuation is going up as we have 2.5 and 5 acre lots. Unfortunately there is little that can be done. The good news is our properties are probably worth this, at least for now. The bad news is that we will see double digit property tax increases in 2023. Our previous mayor would always answer complaints about the high property taxes in Dayton and his response was that your values are increasing beyond my control. Maybe Minnesota need a Proposition 13 like California had a number of years ago. Limits to how much your property taxes can go up in a given year. It’s not going to be pretty, that’s for sure.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the state has a $7 billion surplus or whatever it is?

If you have any portion of your home unfinished, it’s best to appeal and let them see it in person if they wish. If nobody has ever been in the house, they’re calculating it as 100% finished square footage. There are many homes around here in a new development with 1200ft finished upstairs, an unfinished basement, and people think they’re “smart” by not having an assessor in their house…which is in fact costing them.

never let an assessor into your house. take pictures of the interior and take them to the appeals meeting if you want to go the route of showing the inside to decrease the value. The assessor will find things on the interior to raise your value. It’s their job to make as much money for the town/township as possible. Especially in smaller communities. It is a racket 100% and like i stated previously, the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer.
just my opinion though.

phishingruven wrote:

never let an assessor into your house. take pictures of the interior and take them to the appeals meeting if you want to go the route of showing the inside to decrease the value. The assessor will find things on the interior to raise your value. It’s their job to make as much money for the town/township as possible. Especially in smaller communities. It is a racket 100% and like i stated previously, the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer.
just my opinion though.

As some who has had to work closely with the local assessor multiple times and argue valuations, I’d say this is a rash generalization.

Transparency to show that you are living in a house that may have some unfinished rooms or storage areas is more likely to help an argument to reduce your values. When an assessor walks around your home from the outside, they’re more often than not assigning it the maximum possible value based on completely finished square footage.

like i said, take pictures and go to the appeals meeting. I too have had to argue valuation.
A lot of times, the assessor does the assessment from the road. especially when the entire township is being assessed. Throw in some no trespassing signs, and fences with locked gates, they rarely walk around every house and property. You also should get the worksheet that the assessor uses to calculate your value. That is public information stored at city/township hall.