Chris Johnson says: After all, the esitmated or appraised values of ALL PRIVATE property, made by "personnel of the state, its agencies and departments, or a political subdivision [counties and their tax assessors]" is PUBLIC information in all counties. I regularly look up the governmentally appraised value of PRIVATE real estate via various county records.
Brandt here: Chris is correct that the estimated market value for property is public and is commonly available on the Web. But he's mixing up that judgment by the assessor, and a specific appraisal made when the government sells land. That's the one that's private under certain circumstances. Why are these figures different? First, the web site estimated market value typically is old. Hennepin County currently lists on the web the estimated market value as January 1, 2002, although a phone call to the assessor would give the Jan. 1, 203 estimate. Second, my reporting experience has been that the assessor typically lags the market, at least for homes. whether it's rising or falling. To illustrate the difference between EMV and an appraisal, the estimated market value on the web for my house is more than $100,000 below a private appraisal done recently for refinancing purposes. And banks aren't prone to inflating appraisals, given that they lose if they have to take an inflated property back as collateral. Steve Brandt Star Trbiune REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
