Brenna Lachowitzer closed on her Horace home in August 2024. She moved in with her two boys, settled into a mortgage payment she'd budgeted around, and started living the life she'd planned. Then in March 2025, she opened her escrow statement and found her mortgage was about to jump by $1,400 a month. The cause wasn't a rate change or a missed payment. It was a special assessment, the kind of infrastructure bill that Horace residents have learned to expect eventually, just rarely on the timeline anyone plans for.
That gap between "eventually" and "at closing" is the real story in Horace right now. Every guide to buying here will tell you special assessments exist and that you should check for them. Fewer will tell you the part that actually catches buyers off guard: in Horace, the city has often finalized what you owe well after you've already signed, moved in, and started paying a mortgage based on a number that wasn't final at all.
Why the Order Matters More Than the Amount
A special assessment is a charge the city levies against individual properties to pay for infrastructure that benefits them directly: streets, sewer lines, water mains, storm systems. The City of Horace charges these under authority granted through the North Dakota Century Code, and the city's own special assessment policy says the goal is to develop "fair and equitable assessments through a transparent process."
The mechanism itself is standard practice across growing North Dakota cities. What's specific to Horace, and what a lot of buyers don't realize until it's their problem, is the sequence. An assessment can sit as "pending" (estimated, approved in concept, not yet finalized) for years while a project moves through design, construction, and a multi-step approval process. Only after all of that does it get "certified," meaning the final dollar amount is locked in and added to your property tax bill.
Horace City Administrator Brenton Holper has been candid about why the city wants to change this. Describing a new infrastructure policy the city is working toward, he told a reporter the goal is to "bond, construct and then certify specials before folks are ever building houses." That's a direct admission that the historical order has run the other way: houses get built and sold first, and the final bill for the infrastructure underneath them arrives later, sometimes years later, once a project's true costs are known.
The Bill That Changed on Ironwood Drive
Derek Johnson and Chris Lerum are next-door neighbors on Ironwood Drive. In 2022, the city sent them a letter estimating their share of a planned street project at roughly $8,000 per household, to be split among residents on the road. They voted to approve it.
What happened next is the pattern worth understanding before you buy anything in a Horace subdivision with pending infrastructure. The project scope expanded and the assessment method changed. By the time the Horace Special Assessment Commission finalized its recommendations in the fall of 2025, one of the seven districts on its list was labeled 2022-10, Chestnut Drive and Ironwood Drive Rehabilitation. When the certified bills landed in December 2025, both men found their assessments had grown well past the original estimate:
| Homeowner | 2022 initial estimate | Interim billed amount | Certified assessment (Dec. 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derek Johnson | about $8,000 | $14,000 | $31,600 |
| Chris Lerum | about $8,000 | about $12,000 | $26,000 |
Both increases topped 110% from the interim amount alone, according to Valley News Live's reporting. Johnson, a father of two, said the family had planned to stay in the home until their kids graduated. Now they're discussing whether to leave Horace altogether.
Same Subdivision, Different Bill
Lachowitzer's story, reported by Valley News Live in April 2025, adds a detail that matters just as much as the dollar figures: the same house built two blocks away can carry less than half her assessment total. She put it plainly when asked why she can't sell: someone could build the identical home nearby with a fraction of the specials attached, so why would a buyer choose hers.
This is the part a median price or a per-square-foot comparison will never show you. Two homes in the same Horace subdivision, built by the same builder, priced within a few thousand dollars of each other, can carry meaningfully different total costs of ownership depending entirely on which infrastructure district the lot falls into and when that district gets certified.
The Window You Don't Get Twice
If you're already past closing and a certified assessment shows up that looks wrong, the appeal process has its own timing trap. Objections to the Horace Special Assessment Commission's recommendations and objections to the City Council's final vote are treated as two separate rounds. According to InForum's reporting from September 2025, a written objection filed with the Commission does not carry forward to the Council hearing. Residents who want to be heard at the Council level have to file again, on a new clock.
Johnson and Lerum learned this the hard way. When Lerum emailed the mayor, the response confirmed their objection had missed a 30-day window, not that it had been considered on the merits. As of the story's reporting, the two were still searching for legal representation, after one attorney had already declined the case for the same reason.
The commission's fall 2025 hearings covered seven districts at once, including Wall Avenue East and West, 66th Street, 63rd Street, and the two additions with retention pond work, Cub Creek Second Addition and River's Edge Second Addition. At the August 2025 public meetings, some residents said their proposed assessments topped $100,000. A separate October 2025 hearing on the Chestnut and Ironwood Drive district drew residents who raised questions about the city's own contribution and how much West Fargo Public Schools was covering toward shared project costs. Once a district is finalized, residents get 10 interest-free days to pay in full; after that, the balance spreads across 25 years on the tax bill.
Two Numbers to Get Before You Offer
None of this means special assessments should scare you off a Horace listing. It means the certified number on a current tax bill is only half the picture. Before writing an offer, get both of these in writing:
- The certified balance. Horace special assessments are processed through the Cass County Finance Department. The city's assessment page lists the county's number, (701) 241-5600, as the source for confirming what's already certified against a specific parcel.
- The pending status. For anything not yet finalized, the city's own guidance directs buyers to email Finance Director Matt Voltz directly at [email protected]. This is the only way to find out whether a project affecting your lot is still moving through the commission-then-council process, and how far along it is.
For new construction specifically, ask the builder one more question: does the quoted price assume the project is fully certified, or does it reflect an estimate from a scope that could still change. Johnson and Lerum's experience shows that even an approved project can get more expensive between the vote and the final certification.
This Is a Growth Pattern, Not a Red Flag
Horace grew from about 2,430 residents in 2010 to 3,085 at the 2020 census, and the seven infrastructure districts moving through certification in 2025 alone show the building hasn't stopped since. Fast growth means constant new infrastructure, and constant new infrastructure means an assessment pipeline that's always moving. That's not unique to one bad subdivision or one bad year. It's what building a city from scratch looks like, and the city administrator's own comments suggest Horace is trying to fix the sequencing problem for future development.
For now, the safest approach is treating every Horace listing, new or resale, as an assessment question first and a price question second. Tyler Bretz reviews the certified and pending assessment status on Horace transactions before an offer goes in, precisely because the number on the listing sheet and the number on next year's tax bill aren't always the same one.
Quick Answers for Horace Buyers
Are special assessments unique to Horace? No. They're standard practice across growing North Dakota cities under state law. Horace's pace of growth over the past several years has simply made the gap between pending and certified assessments more visible and, for some residents, more expensive than in slower-growing areas.
Will a title search catch a pending assessment? A title search will generally catch anything already certified against a property. A pending assessment, one that's been discussed or approved in concept but not yet finalized by the city, often won't show up until certification happens, which is exactly why a direct check with the city's finance office matters.
What's the first thing I should ask on a Horace listing? Ask for the certified assessment balance from Cass County and ask whether the property sits inside any of the districts still moving through the Special Assessment Commission's review. Get both answers in writing before you write your offer, not after you've closed.
If you're weighing a home in Horace and want someone to run down both numbers before you commit, Tyler Bretz can walk through the certified and pending assessment picture on any listing you're considering, so the price you agree to is the price you actually pay.
