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BC tax assessment vancouver condo

BC Tax Assessment Does not Determine True Value

Steve Saretsky -

BC Tax Assessment Does not Determine True Value

It’s true, it has zero correlation to how much your home is actually worth on the market. Let me explain.

Too many times buyers will look at the BC tax assessment for a property and they will see that the assessed value does not line up with what the seller is asking. They make a huge case that the property is over priced and negotiations become tense. The hard part can be trying to educate them that the BC tax assessment has zero relevance when determining what a property is actually worth on the market.

If you look at sold properties and compare them with their BC tax assessment you will see that the numbers are generally way off, sometimes by a couple hundred thousand. Let’s break it down.  A loft on Beatty Street has an assessed value of $641,000 yet sells for $815,000. A condo on Hornby street is assed at $254,000 yet sells for $362,500. The list goes on and on. There’s nothing special about these units other than the fact that BC assessments mean nothing when determining a homes worth, period.

BC tax assessments are strictly used by the Government to determine how much a property should be taxed for that year. Higher assessed values mean more taxes paid by you. No doubt this sucks, but what does one expect when the sales prices have gone up on average by 20% in one year for Downtown Vancouver. The increase in BC tax assessments still won’t even come close to keeping up with true home values.

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