Land valuations for the 2015 tax year will be increasing for many properties within the town of Houlton.
The last time land valuations were increased in Houlton was in 2010; however, sales of farmland and excess undeveloped land during the past five years have reflected increased selling prices in those categories with parcels of farmland selling in the range of $1,127 to $2,886 per acre and the majority of parcels of excess undeveloped acreage selling in the range of $605 to $6,214 per acre.
The goal of municipalities in Maine is to maintain property valuations as close to 100 percent of market values as possible in order to be in compliance with the State of Maine requirements and guidelines for assessing practices. Therefore, in order to keep land valuations in line with actual market sales, it has been determined to be necessary to increase land valuations for land classified as farmland, excess undeveloped land, wasteland and secondary acres.
In order to keep land valuations current with the market, an approximate 20 percent increase to the above categories of land is necessary, which will be implemented and reflected in the 2015 property tax bills. Taxpayers who will be impacted the most will be contacted in an effort to notify and prepare them for this land valuation increase and the net property tax increase result.
Most taxpayers may see a relatively small valuation increase, with those property owners of large parcels of land seeing more of an increase.
Of the 736 parcels impacted by the valuation increases, approximately 88 percent of those will see valuation increases between $200 and $4,900, which would mean tax increases of approximately $4 to $107 should the tax rate remain the same in 2015 as in 2014.
Another 10 percent of those impacted will see valuation increases between $5,000 and $19,900, which would mean tax increases of approximately $109 to $433. The remaining 2 percent of those impacted will see valuation increases of $20,000 up to the highest increase of $102,800, which would result in tax increases of approximately $435 to as high as $2,236 utilizing the current tax rate.
Property valuations are intended to reflect market values; therefore, as market values increase as evidenced by market sales, property valuations must also increase accordingly in compliance with State of Maine requirements and guidelines for assessing practices.
Any questions regarding the valuation increases may be directed to Houlton’s tax assessor, Laureen Bither, at the Houlton Town Office at 532-7111.
