Your property tax, explained
What the average Nowthen home pays, who gets each part of the bill, how the city share compares with the budget, and how the city tax rate is set.
Key facts
- The city share of the property tax on the average Nowthen, Minnesota homestead is about $1,135 a year for taxes payable 2026. (Your property tax, explained)
- The Nowthen city tax rate for taxes payable 2026 is 23.69% of tax capacity, the $2,179,043 local levy divided by a $9,197,371 tax base. (Anoka County, Pay 2026 final tax rates)
- Anoka County’s share of the same average home is about $1,525 a year, at a county rate of 31.85%. (Anoka County, Pay 2026 final tax rates)
- The full 2026 bill on that average home is about $4,108 in the St. Francis school district, $4,292 in Anoka-Hennepin, and $5,179 in Elk River, counting the city, county, school, and special district taxes. (Your property tax, explained)
- The average Nowthen homestead had an estimated market value of $480,372 for taxes payable 2025, the newest year the state publishes. (Minnesota Department of Revenue)
Updated
Where does my property-tax dollar go?
A property-tax bill is split between the city, the county, the school district, and special districts. The city share comes first because the Nowthen council sets it and this archive holds its record.
City of Nowthen share, payable 2026
$1,135a year
$94.55 a monthCalculated
- Home value data
- payable 2025
- Tax rates
- payable 2026
- Why
- newest published value plus newest final rate
This is an illustration, not your tax statement.
The average Nowthen homestead, estimated market value $480,372 for payable 2025 (the newest published), comes from Minnesota Department of Revenue homestead data. The city share is the home's average tax capacity times the certified payable-2026 city tax rate. Tax capacity is the taxable value the state's formulas assign to a home, a small fraction of its market value. Here it is $4,788.51, the city's residential homestead tax base divided by its 1,369 homesteads. The certified rate (23.69%) is the final rate Anoka County set from the levy the council adopted.
Estimated property tax, by who levies it
$4,108a year
This leaves out parcel-specific state credits and the $24 county solid waste charge, so it is close to but not the same as your property-tax statement.
Every row uses official payable-2026 rates. The city row is the council's certified rate, and the county, school, and special-district rows come from Anoka County's published “Pay 2026 Final Tax Rates” table for Nowthen's three taxing areas, applied to the same home. The school's voter-approved levies are charged on market value rather than tax capacity. Official data
If the city share were spread across the budget
The city does not earmark an individual resident's tax payment this way. This illustration allocates the city share in proportion to budgeted spending so you can see the scale of each service. It spreads $1,135 a year across the adopted 2026 budget. Any category not yet checked by hand against the budget book is marked.
| Category | Budgeted, 2026 | City share, per year |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | $645,630 | $248.74 |
| Roads & infrastructure | $537,725 | $207.17 |
| Police & Sheriff | $527,975 | $203.42 |
| Debt service levy | $439,179 | $169.20 |
| Fire | $327,700 | $126.25 |
| Building & inspection | $125,000 | $48.16 |
| Legal | $102,000 | $39.30 |
| Planning & zoning | $94,080 | $36.25 |
| Parks & recreation | $62,645 | $24.14 |
| Other | $42,550 | $16.39 |
| Capital projects | $40,460 | $15.59 |
See the adopted budget lines →
This covers the whole property-tax levy. The levy splits into the General Fund (day-to-day departments, including parks) and debt service (principal and interest), and both are shown above. The city's other funds are not paid by the levy. Capital improvements and equipment run on transfers, special assessments, and reserves (including a $65,000 transfer in for 2026, per the adopted budget, page 10), and the recycling and charitable-gambling funds pay for themselves. The city also has non-tax revenue (permits, fees, charges, interest, special assessments), so a dollar of spending is not funded by property tax alone.
The full adopted budget is on the Money page, fund by fund and year by year. The city's budget commitments and how they are scoring have their own page. The levy sets the total the city collects, and your assessment sets your share of it. To check whether the county's value for your home is right, use MN Property Tax Buddy.
How the city tax rate is set
The city tax rate is the local levy divided by the tax base. The levy is the property tax the city collects for the year. The tax base is every property's taxable value after the state's formulas, added up. Official forms call it tax capacity. Move either one and the rate moves.
$2,179,043 ÷ $9,197,371 = 23.69%
Local levy and local tax base, payable 2026, Anoka County. Nowthen certified a levy of $2,332,787. The metro fiscal-disparities program covers $153,744 of it, so the local rate is figured on the rest, the local levy. Your city tax is your home's tax capacity times that rate.
Two background articles walk through the math in more depth. Read the articles. Every figure on this page is listed with its source on the sources page.
The Tax Lab
Change the city's tax math yourself. Grow the tax base, raise the levy, or cut the levy and choose the cuts, and see what each does to the rate and to the average home.
History and nearby cities
How the city tax rate has moved
Show the table ▾Hide ▴
Every year Nowthen has existed as a city, payable 2009 to 2025, from the Minnesota Department of Revenue's property-tax data portal. It shows what the city levied, the average city tax rate that levy produced, the total rate across all jurisdictions, and the average homestead market value. The state-aid column shows the certified Local Government Aid for each aid year. Nowthen received state Local Government Aid until 2022, and since 2023 its certified aid is $0. Official data
City average NTC tax rate, 2009–2025
| Payable year | City levy | State aid (LGA) | City avg rate | Total avg rate | Avg homestead value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | $1,006,793 | — | 18.52% | 81.09% | $302,585 |
| 2010 | $1,053,780 | — | 19.35% | 88.92% | $295,216 |
| 2011 | $1,075,793 | — | 22.17% | 100.51% | $262,513 |
| 2012 | $1,093,048 | — | 23.74% | 104.89% | $257,366 |
| 2013 | $1,149,047 | — | 27.04% | 114.56% | $240,071 |
| 2014 | $1,242,797 | — | 29.46% | 116.76% | $230,985 |
| 2015 | $1,243,434 | — | 26.10% | 101.38% | $261,592 |
| 2016 | $1,351,732 | — | 28.75% | 103.41% | $260,357 |
| 2017 | $1,356,620 | $14,424 | 26.35% | 96.71% | $277,776 |
| 2018 | $1,461,272 | $27,774 | 27.15% | 95.18% | $290,140 |
| 2019 | $1,489,761 | $28,401 | 24.16% | 88.40% | $327,448 |
| 2020 | $1,571,041 | $48,751 | 24.29% | 86.68% | $349,211 |
| 2021 | $1,649,004 | $51,686 | 24.67% | 83.81% | $354,213 |
| 2022 | $1,718,764 | $10,680 | 22.24% | 77.82% | $389,942 |
| 2023 | $1,837,964 | $0 | 20.73% | 67.36% | $454,843 |
| 2024 | $1,936,251 | $0 | 20.81% | 67.66% | — |
| 2025 | $2,129,474 | $0 | 22.26% | 73.95% | $480,372 |
Rates are average local net-tax-capacity rates as published by the Department of Revenue (2025 portal export). The city levy shown is the portal's final levy total, which can differ from the county's certified-levy table by small post-certification adjustments (see sources). A dash means the portal export has no value for that year. State aid is the certified Local Government Aid from the Department of Revenue's certification files, which cover aid years 2017 to 2025 here. Earlier years are blank because no certification file is held, not because the aid was zero.
The city rate beside Anoka County and the two school districts serving Nowthen
Rates rose into 2013–2014, when recession-era values shrank each tax base, then fell as values recovered. In 2009 the city rate was the lowest of the four jurisdictions plotted here (city, county, and both school districts), and by 2025 it sits above St. Francis's school rate. Official data
See the rates behind the chart, 2009–2025
| Payable year | Nowthen city | Anoka County | St. Francis schools (ISD 15) | Elk River schools (ISD 728) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 18.52% | 32.44% | 20.96% | 36.13% | methodology |
| 2010 | 19.35% | 35.57% | 24.86% | 39.96% | methodology |
| 2011 | 22.17% | 40.38% | 28.79% | 43.48% | methodology |
| 2012 | 23.74% | 41.61% | 32.84% | 45.54% | methodology |
| 2013 | 27.04% | 44.76% | 33.71% | 50.05% | methodology |
| 2014 | 29.46% | 43.61% | 33.64% | 51.28% | methodology |
| 2015 | 26.10% | 38.44% | 29.45% | 42.48% | methodology |
| 2016 | 28.75% | 39.40% | 29.37% | 39.26% | methodology |
| 2017 | 26.35% | 37.18% | 28.87% | 36.66% | methodology |
| 2018 | 27.15% | 35.82% | 26.96% | 36.13% | methodology |
| 2019 | 24.16% | 34.91% | 24.86% | 32.86% | methodology |
| 2020 | 24.29% | 33.49% | 22.20% | 34.37% | methodology |
| 2021 | 24.67% | 31.46% | 21.96% | 31.71% | methodology |
| 2022 | 22.24% | 29.61% | 18.83% | 30.89% | methodology |
| 2023 | 20.73% | 24.47% | 15.88% | 26.60% | methodology |
| 2024 | 20.81% | 25.63% | 16.19% | 23.92% | methodology |
| 2025 | 22.26% | 30.25% | 15.16% | 25.25% | methodology |
These are average local net-tax-capacity rates as published by the Department of Revenue. School districts also levy on referendum market value, mainly the voter-approved operating referendum, which a net-tax-capacity rate line does not capture. School bond levies are charged on tax capacity and are part of the rate shown. Which school line applies to a household depends on which district the parcel sits in. Details are in the methodology.
The same home in Nowthen and a nearby city
Pick a neighboring city and put the same home in both, at each city's official payable-2025 tax rates.
The same home in both cities, valued at Nowthen's average homestead ($480,372, DOR payable 2025), so the only difference is the tax rate. Type any value to test a different home.
A $480,372 home in Ham Lake and in Nowthen, tax-capacity levies only, payable 2025 rates
| Who levies it | Ham Lake, payable 2025 | Nowthen, payable 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| City tax | $91719.23% | $1,06222.26% |
| County | $1,44330.25% | $1,44330.25% |
| School district | $68114.28% | $90118.89% |
| Special districts | $2194.60% | $1222.55% |
| Total before school voter-approved levies | $3,261 | $3,528 |
Put this $480,372 home in Nowthen and its payable-2025 tax-capacity levies are $267 more a year than in Ham Lake ($3,528 vs. $3,261). The city's own share for payable 2025 is $145 higher in Nowthen.
This comparison is not a whole bill. It uses the Department of Revenue's payable-2025 average local tax-capacity rates for each city, with the school rate blended across every district in the city, and the homestead class 1a formula. It leaves out school voter-approved levies charged on market value, which the bill above includes, and state credits. Both cities' real bills are higher by those levies, and the amount depends on the school district. Official data Calculated
What Ham Lake spends it on, for comparison (audited 2023, State Auditor)
Levy $5,706,212 · total spending $11,737,016 · $712 per resident. This home's $917 Ham Lake city share, spread in proportion:
| Fire | $3,161,313 | $247.09/yr |
| Street construction & capital | $2,645,876 | $206.80/yr |
| General government | $1,640,702 | $128.24/yr |
| Police / sheriff | $1,374,755 | $107.45/yr |
| Streets & snow (operating) | $1,241,324 | $97.02/yr |
| Everything else | $943,402 | $73.74/yr |
| Parks & recreation | $526,102 | $41.12/yr |
| Debt payments | $203,542 | $15.91/yr |
Audited governmental-fund expenditures from the Office of the State Auditor's City Finances Report (2023, the most recent audited year). Cities also have non-tax revenue, so a dollar of spending is not funded by property tax alone. Official data
Common questions
How much is the Nowthen city property tax on an average home?
About $1,135 a year for taxes payable 2026. That is the average homestead’s tax capacity, from state data for payable 2025, times the city rate of 23.69%. (Your property tax, explained)
What is the total property tax bill on an average Nowthen home?
It depends on the school district. The full 2026 bill on that average home is about $4,108 in the St. Francis school district, $4,292 in Anoka-Hennepin, and $5,179 in Elk River, counting the city, county, school, and special district taxes. (Your property tax, explained)
How is the Nowthen city tax rate set?
The rate is the levy divided by the tax base. For taxes payable 2026 that is $2,179,043 ÷ $9,197,371, or 23.69%. Your city tax is your home’s tax capacity times that rate. (Property tax sources)
Does the fiscal disparities program lower Nowthen property taxes?
Yes, somewhat. The metro-area pool pays $153,744 of Nowthen’s 2026 levy, about $80 a year on the average home. (Property tax sources)
About these numbers
This page is an independent educational tool, not a City of Nowthen publication and not an official tax statement. The dollar figures are worked examples that show how the property-tax math works. Real bills depend on a parcel's assessed value, class, credits, and final certified rates, and they will differ from the averages shown here. Budget figures come from the city's adopted budget book, and tax data from the Minnesota Department of Revenue and Anoka County. For an official figure, contact the City of Nowthen or Anoka County. Nothing on this page should be taken as a commitment by the city, and the city is not responsible for how these illustrative numbers are used. The full method and every source are on the sources page.