STUDY: Minnesota and Iowa Border Counties Pay Lower Percentage of Property Taxes on Homes Than Corresponding South Dakota Counties
(NPN) – If you were to guess that South Dakota counties bordering Minnesota and Iowa have a lower effective property tax rate on homes, you’d be wrong.
A new study by the Brookings Institution analyzing homeowner property tax rates has some surprising results for South Dakota, in both in-state and state-to- state comparisons.
Rankings are based on the property tax rate as a percentage of home value. For example, a county with houses with a low property tax rate and a high values will have a lower national ranking than a county with a high property tax rate and low values.
In other words, the lower the number in the ranking the higher the percentage of property taxes paid.
Only one cross-county Minnesota neighbor—Big Stone County (ranked 1,053) —has a higher ranking of taxes paid as a share of home value compared to its South Dakota neighbor—Grant County (ranked 1,059). Every other Minnesota county ranked lower than its corresponding South Dakota border neighbor.
SOUTH DAKOTA COUNTY (RANK) | MINNESOTA COUNTY (RANK) |
Roberts (629) | Traverse (988) |
Grant (1,059) | Big Stone (1,053) |
Deuel (1,157) | Lac Qui Parle (1,375) |
Brookings (604) | Lincoln (804) |
Moody (848) | Pipestone (1,431) |
Minnehaha (583) | Rock (1,719) |
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The trend also continues in a comparison of neighboring Iowa and South Dakota counties.
SOUTH DAKOTA COUNTY (RANK) | IOWA COUNTY (RANK) |
Lincoln (575) | Lyon (1,171) |
Union (958) | Sioux (1,014) Plymouth (1,039)
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Shannon County, S.D., located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, had the highest ranking in the state—and nation. It is listed as the county with the highest percentage of property taxes as value of the house. The study found that the average home property tax payment was $705 on an average home value of $16,800 or 4 percent of the average home value.
Rankings of selected South Dakota counties:
COUNTY | RANKING |
Shannon | 1 |
McPherson | 209 |
Todd | 298 |
Bennett | 302 |
Beadle | 386 |
Buffalo | 446 |
Lincoln | 575 |
Brown | 581 |
Davison | 614 |
Clay | 627 |
Pennington | 646 |
Minnehaha | 664 |
Yankton | 689 |
Meade | 740 |
Butte | 775 |
Hughes | 817 |
Lake | 849 |
Codington | 1,127 |
The study’s authors note that their overall research presents an overview of residential property taxes in the United States and recent trends in aggregate property tax revenues at the county level. They add that most counties levy property taxes that are less than $1,000 per homeowner and below 1 percent of house value.
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