Property Tax Assessment Process

North Dakota law requires assessors to appraise every property in Fargo at its current condition as of February 1st of each year. This is to find the true and full (market) value of each property, or the amount most people would pay for a given property. Assessors apply mass appraisal techniques.

Property owners are notified when their assessed value increases more than 10% and $3,000.

Elected officials for taxpayer-funded entities (city and county commissioners, school and park board officials, etc.) set the total amount of property tax to be paid citywide. Once the budgets for each political subdivision are set, the mill levy is calculated by dividing the amount needed from property taxes by the total taxable value.

Each property's share of the property tax is based on the assessor's value. Although the work of the assessor does not determine the total amount of taxes paid, it does affect the uniform distribution of the property tax burden.

As part of the assessment process, the assessor also maintains land ownership records. In our case, we are the resource for all legal description and ownership information for all parcels in Fargo.