Property Use Category

A United States Census Bureau classification scheme based on actual utilization of real property. There are seven classes of real property:
Acreage (or “Acreage and Farms”) – Includes farms, timberland, recreational acreage, idle land, and waste land in rural locations. Excludes vacant platted lots that lie within or adjacent to a municipality and that usually carry a lot/block system designation rather than acreage. Separately assessed timber or mineral rights are omitted from this category.
Commercial Property – Generally any nonindustrial, nonresidential realty of a commercial enterprise. Includes realty used as a retail or wholesale establishment, retail establishment with living quarters, office building, hotel or motel, gasoline service station, commercial garage, parking lot, warehouse, theater, bank, clinic, nursing home, proprietary school, and the like.
Industrial Property – Generally any property used in a manufacturing activity, including a factory, wholesale bakery, dairy plant, food processing plant, mill, mine, quarry, all locally assessed utility property, and the like.
Other and Unallocable – Includes any property not classified within any of the preceding groups. Examples are mineral rights, timber rights, and oil rights, if they are separately assessed as real estate.
Real Property – Consists of the interests, benefits, and rights inherent in the ownership of land plus anything permanently attached to the land or legally defined as immovable; the bundle of rights with which ownership of real estate is endowed. To the extent that “real estate” commonly includes land and any permanent improvements, the two terms can be understood to have the same meaning. Also called realty.
Residential (Nonfarm) Single – Family – Includes each detached, semidetached, or attached house, if separately assessed and not on a farm, that is a residence for one family only. For detached houses, this would include one – Family rural properties or suburban estates not used primarily for farming, and mobile homes assessed as real property. This category includes each condominium unit in a multiunit dwelling structure, plus each condominium’s share of the common area, unless the common area is separately assessed.
Residential (Nonfarm), Multifamily – Includes each residential property that contains two or more living units, including duplexes, apartment houses, and cooperatives that are assessed as a single entity. The category encompasses street level stores and doctors’ offices in apartment buildings, but excludes motels or hotels.
Vacant Platted Lots – Unimproved parcels described in terms other than acreage, usually by a convention using lot, block, and subdivision name. Vacant platted lots are often located either within a municipality or in areas of higher population density than the surrounding territory.