Homeowners in BC are just now finding their 2011 property assessment notices in the mail. In BC, homes are assessed their market value each year in order to calculate their property and municipal taxes. The 2011 property assessments reflect a value as of July 1, 2010.
Value increases and decreases vary wildly depending on where in BC you live. Homes in Vancouver, for example, increased an average of just over 12% while homes in Victoria only averaged slightly more than a 4% increase in value. In less densely populated parts of the province such as 100 Mile House, property values actually fell on average.
For many homeowners, seeing an increase in their property assessment notice is bittersweet. While it’s nice to see what is perhaps your single largest investment increasing in value, any increase likely means your property and municipal taxes will increase as well. With many families struggling financially, even modest increases in taxes is significant.
For example, let’s say your assessment last year was $359,000 and you owed $1500 in property taxes. This year if the value rises by 10% to $394,900 you would owe $1650 and that’s assuming that the tax rate didn’t go up.
There is an old saying along the lines of “nothing is worth anything until it sells” and that’s very true when it comes to property assessments. If you’re not planning on selling your property (and the majority of people are not planning on selling anytime soon), you’re likely going to want to see as small a change as possible on your assessment. On the other hand, if you are trying to sell your home, you’re going to be hoping for as large an increase as possible on your assessment.
But there is another possibility. Depending on what it said on your 2011 assessment, now may be a good time to look into refinancing your home. With our low current interest rates and potentially your newfound equity it may be a wise decision to look into the possibility of saving money via consolidating high interest debt and/or lowering your current mortgage interest rate.
For further information on the 2011 BC property assessment you can visit the BC Assessment website at:
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