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San Miguel County assessor reports modest overall value increase, highlights sector shifts
Summary
Assessor Sarah Enders told the Board of County Commissioners the county—xperienced a 2.7% overall increase in assessed value for 2026, driven by residential gains and offset by declines in commercial, agricultural and oil-and-gas production; 224 real-property protests were filed, most tied to three hotel properties.
Sarah Enders, San Miguel County assessor, presented the county—oard of equalization value report at the commissioners—usiness meeting on July 15, saying overall assessed property value in the county rose about 2.7% for 2026.
Enders said residential value increases accounted for much of the gain while commercial, agricultural and natural-resource categories saw declines tied in part to recent assessment-rate changes enacted by the legislature. She noted this is an "intervening year" in which the county did not revalue all properties, and that legislative assessment-rate adjustments explain many of the shifts.
The assessor told the board that vacant land values fell roughly 5%, industrial values fell roughly 3.7% (matching the assessment-rate change for industrial), commercial values were down about 8%, and agricultural values down about 8%. Natural resources were down roughly 10.4%. Enders also highlighted an unusually large percentage increase for producing mines, explained by new uranium production on the Lehi end where the county had previously reported no producing-mine value.
Enders said oil-and-gas real property values dropped by about 99.9% because there was almost no production this past year compared with the prior year when a regional producer had been active. Personal-property valuations overall were down about 1.3%, she said, noting that residential personal property rose while industrial and commercial personal-property categories declined.
The assessor reported 224 real-property protests in 2026: 43 adjustments were made and 181 protests denied. She explained a large share of protests (152) were associated with three hotel properties that appealed multi-unit assessments (including 102 units at the Madeline Hotel and 19 units at the Hotel Columbia), and most of those appeals were denied.
Enders reminded the board that state-assessed values are finalized by the state in August and therefore were not included in the county—igure she presented. When commissioners asked about penalties for failing to file a personal-property declaration, Enders said the taxable threshold is $56,000 for this year and that late-filing penalties apply when accounts exceed that threshold (the penalty is $50 or 15% of taxable value, whichever is more, though she said in practice the flat $50 has prevailed). Oil-and-gas late-filing penalties are handled differently, she said, and can be assessed up to $3,000 per company.
The board did not take formal action on the report; the presentation fulfilled the statutory requirement to report to the county board of equalization.
