Assessment Base & Classes of Property

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY

The residential class of property includes all property where the predominant use is for living purposes. It also includes vacant land where the most likely use would be residential development. Apartment buildings of four or more units, hotels, motels, and resorts are classified as commercial property. The residential class represents roughly 63.1% of the total assessed value* of the city.
 

Within the residential class of property, there are two sub-classes:

Residential - single family, two-family, and three family dwellings. This property represents about 55.7% of the total city value.

Condominiums -these residential units comprise about 7.4% of the total city value.

The commercial class consists of properties where the predominant use is the selling of merchandise or a service. Apartment buildings of four or more units and office buildings are included in this class. This class also includes vacant land where the most likely use would be for commercial purposes. Commercial property represents about 34.2% of the total assessed value of the city. 

Within the commercial class of property there are three sub-classes:

Local Mercantile- this property consists of smaller commercial property throughout the city where values are strongly determined by the property location. Examples include store front properties and taverns. Local commercial property represents about 7.0% of the total assessed value of the city. 

Special Mercantile - this property consists of special property types whose function dictates the use of similar appraisal techniques. Examples include hotels, motels, funeral homes, fast food franchises, office buildings, shopping centers, service stations, and so on. Special commercial property represents about 16.6% of the total assessed value of the city. 

Apartments - this includes all apartment buildings with four or more units. Apartments comprise about 10.6% of the total assessed value of the city. 

Manufacturing property consists of all property used for manufacturing, assembling, processing, fabricating, making or milling tangible personal property for profit. It also includes establishments engaged in assembling component parts of manufactured products. All manufacturing property is assessed by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Manufacturing real property represents 2.5% of the total assessed value of the city. 

Locally assessed personal property basically includes all personal property used by business. It does not include inventories. Locally assessed (non-manufacturing) personal property represents about 2.7% of the total assessed value of the city.
 

Manufacturing personal property is assessed by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. It represents about 0.6% of the total assessed value of the city.