Homeowners opening their property assessment notices have been dealing with sticker shock across the North Shore this week as the value of many single family homes rose between 30 and 50 per cent.
Even local politicians aren’t immune.
District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton said he did a double take when he got the assessment for his own home and saw the land value had been hiked 36 per cent over last year while the home itself was valued 10 per cent higher.
“That is not what my home is worth,” said Walton, who added he is considering appealing his own assessment for the first time.
“I am going to be questioning the logic,” he said.
Walton said that in the past, assessed values always seemed to come in slightly under what most people felt the true market value of the home might be, but now that trend appears to have been reversed.
“I’m surprised and disappointed in how aggressive B.C. Assessment’s been in raising the assessed values,” he said.
Walton’s comments reflect those of citizens across the North Shore this week, as homeowners discover their assessed values are clocking in at 30, 50 or even 60 per cent higher than they were last year.
According to the assessment office, a 1971 single-family home in Lynn Valley assessed at $1.13 million last year was valued at more than $1.64 million this year – an increase of 46 per cent.
A home in West Vancouver’s Ambleside neighbourhood worth just less than $2.8 million last year was up 42 per cent – to more than $3.9 million.
Daniel Oong, who owns a home with his mother in the Glenmore area of West Vancouver, said his property value jumped by more than 50 per cent from about $1.5 million last year to $2.4 million this year.
When they first moved into the neighbourhood, six years ago, the assessments were relatively stable, he said. “In the last two years, it went up by a lot.”
One nearby property sold two or three times in recent years, said Oong, and “it went up (in price) 10 or 20 per cent each time it got sold. … It wasn’t like somebody lived there. It was traded.”
Oong said a potential increase in property tax was an immediate concern when he got the assessment, but he realizes many other homeowners are being hit with a similar increase this year.
“The number’s almost fictional,” he said, adding nothing about the actual house has changed. For now, he and his mother are going to sit back and consider their options. “We’re trying to be rational.”
Jason Grant, area assessor for B.C. Assessment, said it’s important to remember that big increases in assessments don’t always translate into large increases in property taxes – that has more to do with how a property’s increase in assessed value compares to the average increase in the municipality.
But for many owners of single-family homes on the North Shore, a big increase also means they no longer qualify for the provincial homeowners’ grant that offsets a portion of property taxes.
In December, Metro Vancouver mayors asked the province to consider changing the $1.2 million cutoff for the grant, arguing it was cutting out an increasing proportion of homeowners in the Lower Mainland, where values skyrocketed last year. The provincial government indicated this week it is still considering that.
Walton said he lost his own homeowner grant two years ago. As mayor, he regularly hears from people whose property tax bill has increased because they’ve lost that help from the province.
Adding to consternation on the part of homeowners, assessment notices that came out this week are heralding large increases in property value for homes that have likely slid in value in the six months since the July 1 valuation date – which was prior to both imposition of the provincial foreign buyer tax and federal changes to mortgage rules.
Statistics released by the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board on Wednesday point to a falling market, with sales across the Lower Mainland eight per cent below the 10-year average for the month.
According to those statistics, sales between October and December this year were down 70 per cent in West Vancouver over the same time period last year. Sales in North Vancouver were down about 45 per cent.
Benchmark prices for homes in West Vancouver – while still high – are about 10 per cent less than they were six months ago, while prices for North Vancouver homes slid about five per cent in that same time period.
Grant said if property values slip, that will be reflected in the next valuation, which happens on July 1.
Grant said anyone considering appealing their assessment should first check the website at bcassessment.ca to get information about similar properties and sales activity in their area. If owners call to talk to an assessor and still aren’t satisfied, a notice of complaint must be filed by Jan. 31. Property assessment review panels – the first step in the appeal process – generally schedule hearings between Feb. 1 and March 15.
