The mailman has just delivered the property assessment for our BC ski condo.
I'm not aware if this system exists in different forms around the world but here in Canada, most provinces have an assessment procedure for property based on market value. Despite what they try to say, this assessment does get used in the calculation of property taxes.
We've already received the ones for our home and cottage and one for the condo has been highly anticipated. (yes, I need to get a life...)
The BC assessment surprised me. There was a letter in it stating that for the first time, due to the current market challenges, they are listing both the "value" of your property as of July '07 and the "value" as of July '08 and if there is a difference, they will chose the lower of the 2 values to calculate taxes.
How progressive is that?!
Well, our condo, which we purchased in May '08 was assessed 17% less than last year. So our property taxes will be lower this year! (current taxes $420/yr)
The lower assessed value doesn't bother me as we have no intention of selling for a very long time. It is just paper value.
My home province wasn't so generous or progressive. Our cottage didn't fare as "well" from a cost cutting perspective. It was assessed 30% more this year (current taxes $952.56/yr). Our main home was assessed 17% more (current taxes $2781.36/yr).
So the decrease in the BC taxes will help offset the other 2.
How did you fare in your property assessments? Is it used to calculate property taxes too?
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