Dorchester Times: Dorchester Property Owners See Property Tax Valuations Fall 6%

Friday, June 6, 2014

Dorchester Property Owners See Property Tax Valuations Fall 6%

The Dorchester Times is one of the only sources of local media, online or otherwise, that frequently publicizes reports on property taxes.

We usually bring you the bad news. Today, it's good news we share -- at least for homeowners. And we want to give credit where credit is due.

Dorchester property owners should have by now received notice that within the village, property assessments have seen a 6% decrease in improvements and buildings. That means that a homeowner that previously had a house with an assessed value of $125,000 will now see their assessed value drop to around $117,500 for tax year 2014.

That will mean some sizeable savings when the property tax bill arrives.

Why the drop in assessed values in Dorchester? We can think of one main reason: the original Keystone oil pipeline that runs through our school district. You can thank TransCanada for your drop in property taxes.

Meanwhile, the news isn't as good for farmers and farm land owners. Saline County farm land owners saw very large increases in land valuations, since ag property was revised using prices from ag land sales from October 2010 through September 2013.

Also, in nearby Western, that village increased valuations on improvements and buildings by a whopping 8%.

Remember that in Nebraska, the property tax is levied only by local governments -- mostly school districts, counties, cities, and NRDs. The tax on real estate is levied based on the actual or market value of the real estate. Most is assessed at 100% of actual value, but ag land has been assessed at only 75% of actual value since 2007.

Recall our story from last summer that showed Crete and Friend school districts have significantly higher property tax levies than Dorchester.

5 comments:

MikeJune 6, 2014 at 2:28 PM
Sorry Dweller, I have to disagree with your reasoning behind the valuation drop: The Keystone improvements may be behind a drop in overall tax amount paid, but it would have very little influence in a homeowner's property valuation decrease.
In Nebraska, property valuations are based on market indicators. The more dollars that near-by and similar properties sell for - the more your property is worth and valued for. You correctly identified that ag property has seen significant increases lately, due to increasing dollar amount ag land sales.
The reverse is also true. If near-by and similar properties are selling for less - your property will be worth and valued for less.

If property valuations in Dorchester did indeed drop it means that: 1. There are limited number of market sales for homes in Dorchester which mean that there is a low-volume sales database for the Assessor to draw a market rate value from. Or 2. That the homes themselves are depreciating in value due to age, neglect, or some other debilitating reason.

Translation: Either people are not buying and selling homes in town, or the homes are not being taken care.

This also becomes a larger problem: Imagine going to a bank to get a $125,000 construction loan to build a home that once constructed is now worth only $117,000. Most financial institutes will not be this generous with their money.

Overall, while it may be good for the individual tax payer right now - in the long run it will become a further liability to the future of the town.
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Chevy VanJune 6, 2014 at 3:46 PM
I agree the pipeline helps, but reality says gravel streets and unkept properties decrease the value of all homes in our town. Your house is not going to appreciate in a town without pavement.
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AnonymousJune 6, 2014 at 9:50 PM
Correction in the article, Keystone did not lower the valuations, It helped out on the levee but not valuation. Next, With village valuation down 6% and ag land up 40%, it a tax shift from village to ag land.
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AnonymousJune 8, 2014 at 10:04 PM
Fair points made above but the dweller is right in that local gov't doesn't collect more than its projected needs, and no doubt the oil pipeline has boosted overall tax revenue. As to the folks complaining about increase agricultural land valuations, farmers know who to blame ... their neighbors bidding silly prices at those land auctions. I got news for ya boys, corn aint gonna be $8 again in the next 10 years.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."