York Region Property Values Up 27.2% Since 2008

Excerpted from The Toronto Star

York Region property values up 27.2% since 2008
Published on Thursday October 11, 2012

Tim Alamenciak
Staff Reporter

New construction and desirable affordable homes have sent average property values up as much as 31 per cent in some cities across York Region and 17 per cent in Durham, according to the latest property value assessment.

Assessment notices started arriving last week in the mailboxes of residents of York and Durham, with the remainder in the GTA to follow at the end of October. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) conducts assessments every four years in Ontario to help determine the level of property tax each homeowner should pay.

“It makes sense, just based on the market conditions we’ve seen over the past few years, certainly as we’ve come out of the recession and definitely through the end of 2011,” said Jason Mercer, senior manager of market analysis with the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The assessment provides a snapshot of the presumed value of your property as of Jan. 1, 2012.

Generally speaking, if your new assessment is in line with the average increase in your municipality or region, your taxes will stay the same (subject, of course, to political decisions to raise the general tax rate). If your home’s value has risen more than the average, your taxes will increase. Similarly, if it has risen less than the average, your taxes will decrease.

The average increase in York Region is 27.2 per cent; in Durham Region, 13.8 per cent. Both numbers represent the increase in value since the last assessment, in 2008.

The increases will be applied incrementally over the next four years, meaning those facing a boost in property taxes won’t see a huge jump all at once in 2013.

Within York Region, homeowners in Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan saw the most significant boost in their property values. That means residents in those areas will bear a greater burden of the regional tax.

“The rate of change is greater in the Markham-Vaughan area than it is in places like Georgina, further out. That’s reasonable from the perspective that the demand is coming or emanating from Toronto itself,” said Larry Hummel, chief assessor at MPAC.

The highest rise in property values within Durham Region was in Pickering, where assessments rose by an average of 17.2 per cent.

“If you look at single-detached home prices in Durham versus a lot of other parts of the Greater Toronto Area, you’d be able to get a good-sized house on a good-sized lot for a relatively cheaper price than some other parts of the GTA,” Mercer said.

“Durham Region didn’t go up as strongly as York, but still did relatively well. The increase across Ontario was 18 per cent on average,” Hummel said.

Assessments will be mailed out to Halton and Peel Region homeowners starting Oct. 22. Toronto property assessments will hit the mail Oct. 29.

How is your home assessed?

MPAC looks at numerous factors when making its assessment, including local home sales, property size, outdoor improvements, fireplaces and the age of the house.

The assessment informs property tax calculations, though how much you actually end up paying next year will also depend on whether elected officials decide on a blanket increase for everybody.

Enid Slack, director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto explains that the municipality will adjust the base tax rate so that homeowners whose property value has risen by exactly the average amount — 27.4 per cent in York Region, for example — won’t see any change in their tax bill.

Those whose assessment has risen less or more than the average, however, will see a change in their property tax proportional to the difference in value.

“The property tax is a way to pay for local government services in as fair a way as possible,” Slack explained. “What the assessment base provides is a way to distribute those taxes among taxpayers.”