Results Of The North Dakota Land Valuation Model For The 2003 Agricultural Real Estate Assessment With The Revised Capitalization Rate

This report summarizes the results of the North Dakota Land Valuation Model using a capitalization rate of 9.5 percent. The 2003 North Dakota Legislature amended the statute that defines the capitalization rate to be used in this analysis. This legislative change places a minimum of 9.5 percent for the capitalization rate if the calculated value falls below this level. For 2003, the capitalization rate formula yielded a rate of 8.53 percent, thus the minimum of 9.5 percent was used. This model is used annually to estimate average land values by county, based on the value of production from the land. The county land values developed from this procedure form the basis for the 2003 valuation of agricultural land for real estate tax assessment. The average all land value from this analysis is multiplied by the total acres of agricultural land on the county abstract to determine each county's total agricultural land value for taxation purposes. The State Board of Equalization compares this value with the total value assessed to agricultural property in each county. Each county is required by state statute to assess a total value of agricultural property within 5 percent of this value. The average value per acre of all agricultural land in North Dakota decreased by 5.3 percent in this analysis. The increase in the capitalization rate alone accounted for an average decrease in land values of 6.2 percent.