Calgary Property Assessment

[qkslvr]

It looks like house values went up pretty well this year. Anybody knows how accurate the city's property assessment is compared to the market?

[The Cosworth]

usually 10% low from what my dad was saying.

Always lower than market at least

[The_1]

from what ive seen so far its above market
my townhouse is selling for around 350K and my assessment is 370K

[Fivewayradio]

Mine's about 50k above market this year. Last year's was about 15k below.

[rc2002]

I can see a lot of assessments being higher. The higher the assessment - the higher your property tax. The city needs any additional tax money in a bad way.

Good news for you if you're trying to sell your house though.

[reiRei]

bad news if you live in the ghetto (NE) looks like they're making lower income families pay more taxes so that the younger, richer suburbanites down south can have another Ctrain station, better roads.. and all that wonderful stuff...

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by reiRei
bad news if you live in the ghetto (NE) looks like they're making lower income families pay more taxes so that the younger, richer suburbanites down south can have another Ctrain station, better roads.. and all that wonderful stuff...

I live in the inner city, and I love how our property tax increases go to service this city's suburban sprawl...

[malbadon]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
I can see a lot of assessments being higher. The higher the assessment - the higher your property tax.

Except you are completely wrong. Calgary works on a revenue neutral budget. They announce how much money they need, then divide that money among the assessed values of all houses in Calgary.

What your value is this year versus last year barely matters, what matters is what the city determines is their budgetary needs this year and how much of a percentage change that is.

Then sure, if your house went up 21% while your neighbours only went up 18%, well you get the screw for a buck or two, but whoopy. I think I'd calculated last year that a 10 grand disparity between my house and my neighbours amounted to 50 bucks.

Every year, same thing, people running around with their hair on fire because their house went up 80 grand in assessed value and they somehow believe that means they are going to be shelling out 40% more taxes or something....its explained on their website...its explained on the assessment brochure....yet every year same thing...

[lint]

Also, the assessment information is as of July 2007, not Jan 2008.

[bamboo403]

Really?
Mine seems to be 20k less than the average SALE price of townhouses surrounding me.
I did have around a 22% increase this year from last...ghey.

[AndrewMZ3]

My understanding was they have adjusted their assessment metrics to more closely reflect market value as of last July. Between that time and now, the market has decreased, so the assessed value will generally be higher than the current fair market value.

[qkslvr]

thanks for the info...

[Melinda]

Yeah ours is $325,000 this year. The 5 places for sale on our block are selling around $290,000 at the moment.

[max_boost]

The assessment isn't accurate for my home. When I took out my HELOC, the bank assessment was 30% higher than the City's.

Plus the City also doesn't take into account other factors that would increase the value of your home, location, upgrades etc.

[Pacman]

My assessment is inflated. It came in at 370k and it should only be 330k tops. Even for July it would have been a stretch to get 370k for my place.

[rc2002]

Originally posted by malbadon


Except you are completely wrong. Calgary works on a revenue neutral budget. They announce how much money they need, then divide that money among the assessed values of all houses in Calgary.

What your value is this year versus last year barely matters, what matters is what the city determines is their budgetary needs this year and how much of a percentage change that is.

Then sure, if your house went up 21% while your neighbours only went up 18%, well you get the screw for a buck or two, but whoopy. I think I'd calculated last year that a 10 grand disparity between my house and my neighbours amounted to 50 bucks.

Every year, same thing, people running around with their hair on fire because their house went up 80 grand in assessed value and they somehow believe that means they are going to be shelling out 40% more taxes or something....its explained on their website...its explained on the assessment brochure....yet every year same thing...

[snip from the City of Calgary website]
Property assessment is the estimated value of a property used for municipal and education taxation purposes. The formula used to determine your property tax is: Property assessed value x Tax Rate = Your property tax levy.
[/snip]


Your property tax is a function of your assessment. Say your house has gone up 10% in relation to the average. 10% on a $500,000 house equates into $273.07 as per last years tax rate of 0.005461400. With the 4.5% raise in taxes this year, that's $285.36. That's a decent chunk of change.

From the Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...9572fe&k=55491

Communities in the city's northeast, such as Saddleridge, Martindale and Rundle, as well as some in the south, such as Bridlewood, New Brighton and Copperfield, will see tax increases of between five and 9.9 per cent.

A number of older communities, especially in the northwest - such as Dalhousie, Varsity and West Hillhurst - will see their taxes decrease by more than 10 per cent.

[HRD2PLZ]

IIRC the tax assessments are based on market value from July 2007 which was for the most part, higher than it currently is. That being said, my principle residence took a fairly substantial jump over 2006 and seems to be about 5% under market. Haven't seen the assessment from the rental unit yet.

[4wheeldrift]

Mine's quite under market value (almost 60k too low) but I'm not about to complain lol My parents was quite a bit higher than their market value.

[lilmira]

Mine went up and is about 20-30g above current market value. However, tax actually went down by about 100 bucks.

[Z_Fan]

Mine was 413,000 but a neighbour had trouble getting 387,000 for his house which is virtually identical. Though ours is on a corner and his wasn't.

I doubt we'd be able to get 390,000 in today's market.