Property Assessments

[projekktor id=’24627′]

The value of homes in Ontario is assessed every four years, including this year and if you live in Halton region you should have already received a property assessment notice in the mail. If you live in Hamilton and Niagara, your notice will arrive later this summer. House prices have generally sky rocketed since the last assessment in 2012 and the value of your home on that notice will determine how much property tax you pay for the next four years.

Municipal property assessment corporation or MPAC were mailed to Halton region this week. Burlington saw property values go up an average of 7.7% the average home now $621 000. Oakville went up 7.6% to an average home value of $839 000. Hamilton assessments are due in July and Niagara in August.

Every home in the province was re-assessed in January and those new values will be used by banks, insurance companies, realtors and the city when it is determining the tax rate. The amount of property taxes you pay is based on how much your home is worth.

MPAC has a web video to explain how. Say a town has just three homes and needs a $1000 to provide services, it adds up the value of the homes and divides that by a 1000 to get the tax rate. Each homeowner pays the same percentage, but a different amount based on the value of their home. All the taxes together add up to the amount the town needs to provide services. The town does not get a windfall if property values go through the roof.

So if the value of everyone’s property goes up, but the town doesn’t need any more money for services, the tax rate goes down and homeowners pay the same amount as before. If your house goes up more in value than others in the area you will pay more in taxes. If your house value goes up less than the average you could pay less taxes, that would happen by next year’s tax bill. If there is an increase it will happen gradually, you won’t be taxed on the full new home value until 2020. You only have 120 days to appeal after you get your notice.