With the new year comes your new BC Assessment, one of the most misunderstood elements of real estate in this province. So, what do you need to know? Should you be excited about an increase? What if it dropped? Let’s shed some light below.
The Basics: BC Assessment is a publicly owned crown corporation charged with the responsibility of assessing property values across the province, they do this primarily using algorithms that use municipal data as their source information – have any of you ever had a visit from BC Assessment to take a look at your beautiful new kitchen reno? Didn’t think so. They attempt to calculate value as of July 1st from the previous year, in this case from July 1st 2020, which in real estate years can be a lifetime of change – especially this year!
Your BC Assessment: If you’ve misplaced your BC Assessment you can find details here, https://www.bcassessment.ca/ You can also use that site to see how other properties’ BC Assessments compare, although the value of this information may not be that beneficial to you, for the reasons explained below.
Primary Use: Your BC Assessment is primarily for the purpose of calculating property taxes for your municipality. The municipality multiplies your property value against a mill rate, and that’s how your taxes are calculated. Now, just because your assessment may have changed from the previous year doesn’t mean your property taxes will automatically change the same amount. Municipalities still need to cover the same services they did last year and sources of income dropped last year for most municipalities so don’t be surprised if you see an increase.
Accuracy: BC Assessment’s algorithms do their best to assess value, but they are rarely an accurate reflection of market value. Market value is, of course, determined by what someone is willing to pay. You could be in a similar situation to me (David), where our assessed value is over six figures below what we were willing to pay for the home and what we’d be able to sell for today. Or perhaps you’re one of the unfortunate ones we regularly see with your property assessment being six figures higher than market value!
Appealing: If you suspect your BC Assessed value may be higher than market value then you have until January 31st 2021 to appeal. This may be to your advantage as it may reduce your property taxes. See here for more details, https://info.bcassessment.ca/Services-products/appeals. Some home owners are sometimes concerned a drop in their BC Assessed value will impact their market value, this is not the case. Professional Realtors involved in real estate transactions are, in most cases, aware of the difference between BC Assessed value and actual market value.
If you’re wondering how your BC Assessed value compares to our professional evaluation of today’s market value, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re happy to do a market evaluation for you at no expense.