It’s that time of year again. Tax Assessments are out and I’m not surprised I’m getting a lot of inquiries about them.
BC Assessments are up only 1% from 2024. Boring! But here’s a fun fact the highest BC assessment in Vancouver is $82,000,000. Who lives that waterfront castle? Well, no other than the owner of lulu lemon.
So, exactly what is the purpose of BC Assessments and how are BC assessments determined?
- Simply put. They are used to determine the value of a property so that each municipality can put fair property tax amount on each property.
- They are not used to determine the actual value of your home. In case you missed that last sentence BC Assessments are not used to determine the actual value of your home.
Sure, they can be used as a rough guideline but here’s why you should never trust your BC Assessment to determine the value of your home.
- BC Assessments are submitted on July 1 of the previous year and often determined well before that.
- They are 6 months old at best and there’s not a chance that all the numbers and data are determined the day they are submitted so they could be as old as up to a year.
- How is the information gathered? Google maps? Potential building permits and yup you guessed it old residential Sales.
- How can you determine the value of a home without seeing the inside? Come on now.
- Is that a number you are willing to trust? I sure hope not.
What’s the solution? Look around, there are Realtors everywhere and every single one of them can’t wait to give you an up-to-date home evaluation. FOR FREE!
So, please don’t rely on BC Assessments. Their primary use is to determine your property tax. Not the actual value of your home.
