Property assessment notices are being delivered to more than 17,000 property owners in the area and if you haven’t received one yet, you will soon.
There’s no need to fret though, while property values in the Lower Mainland have skyrocketed, most of the province, including Nelson, have remained stable for 2012.
“Nelson saw little more upward bias… but there’s wasn’t a whole lot of change,” said Dennis Hickson, deputy assessor for BC Assessment’s Nelson office.
Changes in property assessments are a reflection what has happened in the real estate market from year to year.
“We’re just interpreting the marketplace and applying that to the properties on a mass basis,” said Hickson, adding that if someone’s assessment is different from the average change in assessment, they will have an assessment-based change in their property tax bill.
“While there was a range, the overall change in a residential classification was minus-one per cent, so if somebody’s property went up ten per cent, they can expect to see an assessment-based increase in taxation,” he said.
“In addition to that, you’re going to find that the taxing jurisdictions have to set their budgets, so even if everybody’s assessment remained exactly the same as last year, their taxes might change by virtue of a change in the budgetary requirements of the taxing jurisdiction.”
However, Hickson said typically changes in municipalities’ budgets will reflect a consumer price index increase of one to two per cent.
“What happens in markets that are rapidly changing is you’ll find that not all the housing stock will go up in the same proportion,” said Hickson.
“You might find that the top end might be going up higher than the lower end and you get shifts so that the average assessment might be 10 per cent, but the upper end might have gone up 25 per cent and the lower end might have only gone up a couple per cent.”
This results in large assessment-driven changes in taxation, which some areas around Vancouver will experience this year.
“Fortunately this year we don’t have that situation occurring, it’s much more stable than prior years.”
Those who have concerns about their assessment not reflecting market value of their property from July first of last year can visit bcassessment.ca to review assessments of neighboring properties for comparison, or contact the BC Assessment office to speak to appraisal staff.