Good afternoon. It is 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 20th, 2026. We will call the meeting of the local board of equaliz appeal and equalization for the city of New to order. Um, at this time we do have one item on the agenda. Um, and we will pass the meeting over to our
county assessor, Sarah, to get us started. Thank you. Thank you guys. U before we start, we'll just kind of do some introductions here. So, um, I'm Sarah Laneir. I'm the county assessor. Just a little I'm new here, so
give you a little bit of a a background. I'm new to working in Brown County, not new to Brown County. I grew up just south of Springfield. Um I did work for 5 years at Cottonwood County. When I left there, I was their deputy assessor. I came over here to Brown County in
August, end of August as the deputy assessor. And then from there, it was a pretty quick turnaround to be interterm county assessor. And then October, mid-occtober, I was hired on as the county assessor. So, uh with me here
today, I have Emily. um she is one of our residential appraisers for new. And then Ted sitting at the table, he's also a residential appraiser from New for New. And then in the back there, uh Cindy, she's one of our assessment
specialists. Um works in the office for mostly homesteads and other things like that. So, okay. Well, um, probably a little different format than previously, but we have a little presentation here for you guys. Move this closer that I
will just kind of go through quick and then we do have some changes for you guys to vote on once we're all done with that. And if you have any questions while I'm going, just let me know. Okay. All right. So, this first page here um
just explains the egg homestead tier limit and the homestead exclusion. Um the egg tier limit did increase another 40,000 for payable 2027. In payable 2026, it was 3.8 million. It will be
3.84 million for payable 27. There was not any changes to the homestead exclusion limit and that is for residential houses. um or egg properties house garage 1 acre. Uh that the last
time that changed was for payable in 2024. Um the next page here slide um this is how that homestead uh exclusion is calculated. So there is a 40% reduction um of value up to the
peak there at $95,000 of value with a max exclusion of $38,000. After that, it decreases at a 9% rate until it hits zero at a value of 517,200. Uh valuation notices and tax statements
will still say that it is homestead even if there is not an exclusion. A reason for that would be if um say the market changes and we decrease in value or um then they might be back under that
number and get some exclusion. or if the state would come in and increase that that peak number like they did in uh for payable 2024 that would be it might extend out there as well. So
all right um next is just we'll go a brief overview of our sales ratio study. So every year uh we do look at sales to see what the market is doing and then adjust accordingly. Uh the sales we looked that
impacted the 2026 um estimated market values would have been sales from October 1 of 2024 through end of September 2025. Um in this process we verify every single sale. Um we want to make sure they're good arms length sales so we
have a good representation of the market. Some reasons why we wouldn't include a sale would be um for instance if there's a large amount of new construction that we don't already have accounted for in the estimated market value cuz those would get excluded based
off that because it wouldn't be fair to use that sale and potentially increase everyone's values because not everyone had that new construction that was property specific for that. We're not at that point we're not really comparing apples to apples anymore. Um on the other side say something is you know
taken off same thing um or uh generally like sales between relatives or government um agency sales things like that are not included in the sales study because they typically are not at full market value for that. Okay. So after we
go through that verification process to get all of those sales on an even playing field, we use what is called a sales ratio. That is the estimated market value divided by the sale price. So if the estimated market value and the sale price are the same, we'd be at
100%. If things are selling for more than our estimated market value, we will be below 100%. And if things are selling for less than our estimated market value, we will be above 100%. The Department of Revenue requires our median or middle ratio to be within 90
to 105%. Okay. All right, moving on here. Uh, I'm just going to briefly go over the agricultural sales. Um, you do get you do have some agricultural land in city limits here. There were 20 qualified
sales. The um the median ratio for that was 105.84%. There was not a time trend applied. I will kind of get into a time trend here in just a little bit. the uh
the way we do egg sales, we break things down into four different regions. The the region 4 had um a sales ratio of 102 22%. So we did make adjustments for region 4. Region 1 through 3 had 14
sales and the median ratio was 100%. Our final ratio ended at 101.25%. If you go on to the next next page here, this is our region. So, new would be in region one. Region one did increase just
1%. I looked at the last couple years of sales and they were in the low 90s. Um, so I did increase them 1% um for tillable eggland values. I was speaking of the time trend just a little bit ago. This is just a map of
Minnesota for eggland time trends. As you can see, there were no time trends around Brown County. The closest would have been Murray County with a uh positive 8% time trend. Now, a time trend um where we look for our sales ratio study at a 12-mon study. A time
trend looks um the state of Minnesota to figure out if there would be a time trend applied looks at a longer longer study period. They would look at sales from January 1 of 2024 through end of September 2025. Um, if there was more than 30 sales in
that time period, they analyze what the market's doing. If there's a positive time trend from the state, that would the simplest way to say it would be if a sale sold like October 1 of 2024, if that sale would have sold at end of
September 2025, it would have sold for more. That's what that kind of market analysis does. Same way with the negative time trend. If it would have sold um that sale that sold October 1, if it would have sold at the end of that study, it would have sold for less. Um
we did appeal the egg time trend. Um it just it was a negative time trend. It was heavily driven by the six sales in that region 4, which is why we appealed that. It did not fit the sales we had coming in that will be in next year's
sales study. and um the rest of the county. Okay. Um other land prices per acre, this is mostly egg, so not so much in the city of New, but there most of our land value
stayed the same. The only increase was a $500 per acre increase to extra building site acres um due to very strong rural residential sales. This is a summary of what we did. So region four went down for tillable land
16% region one up 1% other than that no other changes other than the $500 per acre change. All right this map here is just breaks down your tillable acres. Um, Newm here, like I said, they do have some tillable acres, not as as many obviously as the
rest of the townships, but your total total tillable land um value is 2,255,700. There are 204 tillable acres in the city of New with um divide that for your average uh tillable price per tillable
acre of $11,73. All right, we're just kind of going to skip over this one. Um this is just rural residential sales. They were very very strong this year and they did see significant increases in our total township.
um estimated market values on this next page just for you guys' information. All right, commercial and industrial and apartment sales here. There were 15 commercial and industrial sales countywide. 12 of those were commercial sales with a
sales ratio of 94.77%. Three were industrial with a sales ratio of 54.95%. Our total combined ratio for those 15 sales was 84.8%.
The we did make three changes for commercial properties. Uh the first change was specifically for downtown NewM. The sales were pretty strong there. So they did see a 4.45% increase just on Minnesota Street. And
then um the next two changes here are both industrial changes. warehouses, that specific building type, saw a 2.91% increase. And light industrial, that once again, that specific building type, saw a 4.74%
adjustment. Our ending sales ratio um was 88.74%. You might be thinking, well, that's not between 90 and 105. The state looks at these individually. So they look at the commercial sales and the industrial
sales like that. So um our commercial had we had 12 sales once again and we were within that 90 to 105 range for our commercial. The three industrial sales we had um we need six sales. If we would have had six industrial sales then we
would have had to go up into that 90 to 105 range. We will continue to look at these being there weren't six sales on a five-year basis. So we get you know the past five years of sales and we we will continue to look at that to make um
adjustments as needed. Uh the similarly there were only three apartment sales this past year and that median ratio is 75.09%. Apartments did increase a lot last year. The only group that did not see a very
significant increase for the 2025 assessment was this 10 to 30 units buildings. So that is what we did increase this year and that was a 3.81% increase. Once again, we will continue to look at those on a 5-year basis.
All right, these next few slides are just the cities. Um, they for residential properties. Um, so we're just going to kind of skip over, but you can, as you can see, they all did see increases overall
and then city of New. Okay. So, the the city of New had 131 residential sales. The median ratio for that was 85.81%.
So, we did need to increase to go up into that 90 to 105 uh range the Department of Revenue requires. Uh we we were looking at a 5.95% overall change. Um
when I was adjusting for sales, there were three specific things that we were looking at. Um one was a countywide change and that was to change the um the the rate of attached to the a grade
of a house. So I did look at the sales countywide for for the grading of a house. Um you might be thinking, what's the grading of a house? Think of like a speck house. Um, you know, standard 8ft walls, just, you know, vinyl siding, gable roof, you know, box cabinetry,
nothing nothing special there. Um, that would be what we would consider a five and a half. That's kind of where it starts. And then for every three extra things you do to your your house, that would increase your grade, which would in turn increase your price per square
foot based off your grade. So now say that same house decided to vault their ceilings, put smartboard siding and put custom cabinetry in their kitchen. Uh that one the cost of construction is going to be more but also it's more desirable in the market. So that is why
the increase would go from a 5 1/2 to a six. We do use the same grading sheet countywide so that we are doing everything consistently. Um, so when looking at that, um, broke it down by each of those grades and saw
how each of those different groups were selling, the largest change for based off the grade would have been for a 5 and 1/2, which would have been a 5 to 10% change. Uh, opposed to like a grade 8, they were selling a little closer to market value. They only saw a 0 to 2%
change on based off of their grade. Uh the next thing I looked at was what we would call a maintenance or condition score. The maintenance or condition score, it's a range of six. It goes from poor to good. Poor would be basically a
barely livable house. Good is a brand new house or fully remodeled house. Most houses are in that uh low average to average to above average range. Um looked at each of those groupings and made changes according accordingly how those different groups were selling. And
then after that, I looked at specific neighborhoods to see um how those neighborhoods were selling after those other changes were already already made. So um I have it broke down here. So West
uh neighborhood and Sunrise, they saw a more significant increase of 18 and 17% respectively. And then South Payne, Orchard Hills, and North Highland, they all increased about 15%. Camel's Back was about 12%.
And then Riverview, Summit, and Hilltop 10, Garden increased six, West Hills 5, and then um Cottonwood and Lakeside 4%. So, some of those newer neighborhoods were selling a little more significantly
than than the older older, you know, the original plat things like that. So, um we did end our final sales ratio at 91.4. 49% for our residential sales here. All right.
Okay. Our next sheet here just shows all the city totals. So for the city of Newm, your guys's 2026 estimated market value is 1 bill480,830,800. Um if we exclude new the 14 million of new construction, uh that is about a 5.4
47% change for for the city of New in comparison to last year. And then we'll we'll jump over quick to this other sheet I gave you guys. This um this one. So this is this is just um new breaks
breaks it down a little more into the specific classifications. So for residential that once again was about a 5.95% increase. Commercial saw just a little bit under 1% increase.
The uh industrial actually did decrease just a little bit. Most of that would be from um just the oh man blanking on words
depreciation. That's the word I'm looking for. Sorry about that. Um apartments with that, you know, 3% increase, they did increase 16%. Um and then the there are some some bed and breakfast
that increased about 2% and then the mobile home park just about4%. There. Do you guys have any questions on that? No. All right.
And then our our last back to the other PowerPoint is just the countywide total. So countywide the total um estimated market value is now 6 bill44,586,600 which excluding new construction is
2.62% and there was $27 million of new construction countywide. So, any questions? I know that was a lot of lot of information for you.
Well, that's the presentation portion. We do have some uh items to vote on this this packet here. So I I can go over those quickly if we're ready for that. Okay. So this this
first one we got a call from Sarah Berg. She lives in on 126 Washington Street North. She called. She had questioned her value. Um we did go out and view that property.
In viewing the during the walkth through, you know, the roof needed to be updated. It's it's an older house, but it is maintained. Um, we've regraded the house. Uh, we did increase that grade a half a half grade, but then there was also a
positive adjustment that we did remove off of that. Uh, there will be we would be asking you guys for to vote on a value change, a reduction of $600 just with those changes that we had made
after viewing the property. President, counselors, and Sarah, do you want action one at a time with these? >> Yes. Let's if that's okay. >> Yeah. So, um, how many do we have to?
>> There should be seven. >> Okay. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah. So, we can certainly do these one at a time. Okay. Um, did you have any other comments on the Washington Street property?
>> No. Do you guys have any questions for for us or anything? >> Nope. So, at this time, I'd be looking for uh a motion to approve the $600 decrease in value. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
Those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. Um, I want to make sure the mayor gets to vote here also. Correct. No. Okay. Once again, sorry, Kathleen, but but if you have a comment, please speak up. Okay, moving on. We have a
another property. Go ahead, Sarah. Yes. Um, this is Loretta Molden. She lives in 600 Garden Street. Once again, she called to just express concerns. Her value had increased again. Um, we did do an interior and exterior review of our
the property. Um most of our information was correct. However, we did decide to add a 5% functional due to some cracking in the um on the structural on the ceiling. And then also the bathroom by
the bedrooms, the only one on the main and the second story only had a bathtub where most people would like a shower. and we've done similar adjustments um on other houses that had bathrooms similar. So that is why we would be asking for
that 5% reduction which would um reduce the value $6,000 from $106 uh,000 to $946,000. >> President counselors, I'd like to make a motion to approve that. >> Second. Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a
second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I I opposed. Okay, that motion also carries. Next property. Thank you. >> All right, our next property here is Daryl and Rebecca Berg. They live on 302
Monument Street. Uh once again called about their increase on their property value. Uh we did do an interior and exterior view of the property. Some changes that were made. We did uh
increase the grade up uh did a little bit more square footage of finish in the basement. Uh the three season porch that they have was down as fully finished and it is it is not. So we did put a percent completion on that. Um one of the
biggest changes we did make was for the land. Uh a lot of their land is not usable because of the very steep ravine there. Um, so we did make an adjustment on that. Uh, the reduction amount here would be $5,100.
So it would go from the original value of 316,900 to 311,800. Um, yeah. Any questions on that? >> Just one minor question. Is that common practice when you say that the land adjustment due to unusable land?
>> Yes. Yep. Yep. Yeah, they uh I mean over like half their yard is >> I realize but it's a beautiful view overlooking the city. >> So they pay more for >> Yes, we we did we adjusted for the non-usable but there is already an adjustment on for uh what we would call
bluff bluff view or having that that view of that. So >> So basically you're saying like buildable. >> Yes. >> You know how much that they flat land usable basically. >> Yep. I'll motion to approve. >> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> That motion does carry. Thank you. All right. This next property is Dennis
Banshee. Um on uh 1011 up upper wall. Oh gosh. Okay. >> Lane. Let you guys say that one. Um uh
we were he called expressing concerns once again about his value. We did do an interior exterior property review. Um when we were reviewing there was quite a bit of deferred maintenance on this property. Um there are some pictures for
you guys on the next on the next page of what we're talking about here with that deferred maintenance. Uh after doing that, we did change the condition and and of that property. And
so the value would go from 311,200 down to $292,900 which would be a reduction in value of $18,300 for I do have a question on this one cuz this is probably the largest one I've
seen here um residentially um since starting this five six years ago. Um do you know what his value was in 2025 and how much it went up? I don't have my phone. >> No, it should be on.
>> I'm just wondering if there was like >> there was a huge increase and then this is kind of an a readjustment to kind of bring it back to where it was based on that. >> Yes, Ted has those number. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so for
2025 estimated market value was 305,300. >> Okay. Could I interject here, Sarah? >> Yeah. >> Um, in Mr. Bian's house, we had not been in that house previously in a number of years. Yeah. >> Um, the biggest adjustment was was the
condition maintenance score on his home. Um, it was previously in his above average. Um, it was lowered to an average um due to the overall condition of the property. um specifically the um exterior
um deficiencies listed. >> All right, wonderful. Thank you so much. That answers my questions. >> I'll offer a motion to approve it. >> Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> Those in favor signal by saying I.
>> I. >> That opposed. That motion carries. Thank you. All right. Our next property here is Tom FTH at 102615 Street North. Um Tom
called about actually his increase for the 2025 uh valuation. uh as we we discussed kind of those changes that were made in 2025, one of the changes was that there was a
5% adjustment taken off due to sales of duplexes. However, in kind of reviewing his property, his duplex is a little more unique than the duplexes that we're selling. Most of the duplexes that we're selling were, you know, they're
identical units just, you know, same building and both rentals where his is more similar to a, you know, single family house with one unit above the garage, a smaller unit. So, with that
uniqueness in there, that's why we um decided to ask for to put that reduction back on there, which would be a $16,000100 reduction um from 311200 to 295100.
>> President and counselors, I'd make a motion to approve this. >> Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. That motion does carry. Thank you.
>> All right. Our next one here is Jane and James Heath on 300 or 1321 Minnesota Street. This is a townhouse. Um Jane had called questioning her value. Uh we did go and do an interior review.
This was another one where we decided to adjust the condition on the property. It wasn't as good. We moved it down to above average just for general wear and tear on a property. You know, nicks in the paint, you know, carpet wearing a little bit. I mean,
it's still in pretty good condition, but not that like brand new house level. Um, which is why we would be asking for a $13,000 100 reduction. So it' go from 240 to1 to 229
um 229,000. Um she did buy this house in March for 214,000. However, this is a sale that will be in next year's sale study. So the you know adjustments might be made for 2027. Um
estimated market value based off of this sale if we have more sim if we have similar sales. Um, so that's why we would be just asking for that $13,000100 reduction for for Jane. >> I'll make a motion to approve.
>> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. >> That motion does carry. Thank you. All right. And then last one here is actually a mobile home.
Um address is 2201 Broadway Street North number 144 for David Rose. Um Ted was actually through this house in the fall and it was in not great
condition. Holes in the floor floor right >> in the floor ceiling. Not really livable at all. However, he was in the process of transitioning into um a different living situation. Um he has left the
property. So, we are asking to essentially change it to a salvage value of $900. Uh the difference there would be $1,700 of a reduction. Um and that this particular site is scheduled to be
removed completely later this year. So, >> that was my question. Yep. Is that as low as you can go when it's like you call it salvageable? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> So move second. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second to any additional discussion. Those in
favor signal by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> That motion does carry. All right. That is all of the properties that we have um for you guys today. Um, I don't think
that's that's it. We we did have a few more calls, but >> they didn't want us to view the property. They just had questions on on their value, things like that. But that's all I have. >> All right. Thank you for the presentation. >> President and counselors, I do have one
question for Sarah. As far as the the year, the yearly calendar goes, sounds like it's the federal calendar starting October 1st. just not the state calendar or the city or the county calendar. >> I I think that date is more so that we
have time to analyze the sales more than anything. Um that's why they choose that October one deadline so that >> um >> we have time to finish you know you know verify the sales get them in so then the state can look at them. So, um, we
>> prior to January 1st of a calendar year then. >> Yep. Our assessment date is always January 2nd. >> Uh, but we I mean even all the way through when we actually send out the valuation notices, we are looking at those sales, making adjustments. So,
>> it's like the just the general process of things. So um you know the things we looked at in 2025 up until that January 2 mark that would have been for the 2020 you know 6 value even though we're not setting that right
on January 2 that is the assessment date um and then you know as the process goes so we have to have time to analyze those sales and come up with the value send out the valuation notice now we're in the appeal time where people can question their value and then after this
you know goes into where you guys are setting your budgets, things like that till, you know, TNT or truth and taxation notice in the fall where they can question the budgets and then, you know, the following year the taxes. So, we're kind of working in a three-year
three-year chunk, four-year chunk if we're, you know, with those sales as well. So, >> thank you Sarah. >> Thank you. And thank you, everyone. Thank you guys for all your work. welcome and um appreciate what you do cuz I know sometimes it's not easy to do what you do. So, we appreciate it. Thank
you very much. Um any other questions or comments? All right. Otherwise, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.