By The overall assessed property value in Brown County will go up about 9% this year to an estimated $6.37 billion.
That’s according to Director of Equalization Gene Loeschke, who presented his 2025 assessment plan to county commissioners during their Tuesday, Jan. 21 regular meeting at the courthouse annex.
All county property had new cost estimates applied to it to create the updated assessment base. That was done using an automated system for maintaining property data, valuing property, notifying owners and ensuring tax equity through uniform valuations.
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There’s also a new appraisal guide used by all South Dakota directors of equalization for residential property. The previous edition was from 2020.
“Every neighborhood was then readjusted to match the construction/replacement costs to the market,” according to Loeschke’s overview.
Aberdeen Insider infographic by John A. Schwab.
In the past four years, there has been a 30% increase in construction costs, he said.
Agricultural land is expected to have one of the largest increases in assessed value since the productivity model reached full scale in 2017, Loeschke said.
Crop-rated soils in Brown County will increase by $341 per acre from last year to an average of $3,877 per acre, which is a 9.7% jump.
Non-crop rated soils will increase $103, or 5.6%, to a value of $1,962 per acre, Loeschke said.
“Overall, our county’s average acre of ag land will increase from $2,239 per acre to $2,465 per acre, which is a 10.1% increase due to changes in top dollar,” he said.
Homes at Elm Lake and Mina Lake will see the biggest jumps in the county, Loeschke said, into double-digit percentages.
Loeschke said the change in value to residential property will vary by neighborhood and even within neighborhoods.
“Most all of Aberdeen residential property is going to increase by less than 10%, and much of it will change by considerably less than that. We do our best to be sure that older neighborhoods, newer neighborhoods, high-end properties, low-end properties are all coming in close to the same assessment ratio,” he said.
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“The more information we have been able to analyze in the … system, the better our equalization for various types of properties is becoming,” Loeschke said.
Much of the work done in the past year will allow more reappraisals to be done in the field and on site, he said.