They can be ridiculous in some areas of NS too. Although there doesnt seem to be any consistency either - sort of the luck of the drawer. When we looked for a house there were several that were all priced the same but the assessments (and therefore the property tax) varied widely. Taxes ranged from about $3500 to $7500 per year for similarly priced houses. It was a big factor in our decision actually.

Wow. I pay about $1600 a year for a property with an assessed value (for tax) of 325,000.

Do they send a tube of vaseline with the bill?

I think part of the problem in NS is that property values were all really low when they worked out the rates. In greater Halifax its something like $1.1 for every $100 of assessed value. In rural areas it can be as much as $2 per $100 of value. So if you go and spend $400k in a rural area (which admittedly would probably get you a mansion) your property tax could actually be $8k per year.

When all the houses cost half of what they do now the rates probably made sense. The trouble is the values have gone up and the municiplaities (bless them) have kept the same rates but apply them to the new increased values.

I think it actually serves to supress prices in some areas - people dont want to buy large and expensive properties because of the tax (a little bit like large engined cars in the UK - the first owner could afford to run them but they are hard to sell because future owners cant afford the running cost)

One would expect to see wide variations in property tax in relation to property values.

The 'same' house may cost double (or more) in one province than in NB, but the cost of services would be broadly similar - except for lower labour costs in NB - so there's nothing really wrong in paying what looks like a high property tax compared to the house value.

But once one has established a 'fair' contribution to the city's coffers, that contribution should remain fair. The formula involved in raising the necessary revenue needs to be adjusted to achieve that.

As a side issue, how about reductions for low income groups? In NB one can qualify for a $200 reduction on the bill for the home. It's been that amount since 1987 and remained unchanged since then. It must have been worth quite a bit when introduced.

if only the powers that be could see your logic

We just received our 2008 Property Assessment notice this afternoon.

Last year the assessed value was $388,500 with actual taxes of $2,121.75 per year.

This years assessed value $449,000 and if the "tax rate" stayed the same as last year (which we know it won't) our taxes this year would be $1,960.69 a reduction of 7.6%

Currently the city is looking at a 4.5% increase in the tax rate so it does appear that our taxes could be lower by a small amount this year.

Cheers
Steve

Am I missing something here? If the assessed value of my home went up and the tax rate stayed the same as last year, the tax bill would go up not down.

Direct quote form the brochoure enclosed with our 2008 assessment notices.

Sometimes it doesn't stay the same.

Thank you Steve_P

"The intent of the City of Calgary's revenue neutral policy is to ensure that:

1) Tax revenues do not increase automatically with assessment increases."

Further confirmation of what we keep hearing.
Calgary (and other places it appears) take steps to ensure they don't simply become awash with our money just because of new valuations.

Doesnt matter as they would all get reassesed automatically to whatever you paid for it.

I heard that was how it was supposed to work but then a couple of other people tell me it was based on whatever the assessment office reckoned the value was roughly a year before. is it different in different provinces? I know that if you buy a house at a price that is below the assessed value they dont put the taxes down!

Might take them a year to get around to it I guess. In Ontario the assesments are done by MPAC. They have a lot of detail on their website about how assesments are generated.

Actually while we're on the subject another thing I heard from a realtor is that they tend to sting you when you build (at least they do here in NS). The lovely assessment people come up with what the reckon the value of the house you built is and base the assessment on that. More often than not it can be way over what you actually paid to build it and for the land etc. The troble is its almost impossible to disprove their claim because the house hasn't actually sold yet. I see a hell of a lot of houses for sale that are only a year old and wonder sometimes if thats the reason.

In Calgary the assessments just came out this week but the actual assessed value is as of July 2007.

The assessed value is just that, the assessed value on a particular date for municipal tax purposes only, it has nothing to do with how much you paid for the property or how much you could get for it if you were to sell it.