City
My Toronto Property Assessment
My Toronto property assessment arrived in the mail yesterday. It wasn't something I was looking forward to having heard that big increases were expected in the neighbourhood I just moved into earlier this year. I was prepared to cringe. It has been more than three years since assessments were made in Toronto and Leslieville has been one of those hot hoods that's seen property values skyrocket.
Cracking open the envelope from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation I was immediately confronted with detailed information how MPAC assesses properties. The key factors are location, lot dimension, living area, quality of construction and the age of the structure adjusted for renovations.
There were also instructions how I could appeal the assessment (which I plan to do and hear usually results in a ruling in the home owner's favour) as well as my own login and password to the MPAC web site where I could whittle away hours on end looking at more details of my home's assessment AND compare it with up to 30 other properties in the area.
So that's what I decided to do. And here are the shocking stats:
1. According to MPAC, the value of my home increased a whopping 41% in three years.
2. Despite this, the value of my home according to MPAC is MUCH LOWER than the amount I paid for it just a few months ago. (Woohoo overpaying and housing crash combo)
3. The value of my home was reduced by about 7% because it's semi-detached and 3% because it doesn't have a driveway or parking space.
Unfortunately, however, when I attempted to compare my home with other properties I didn't have any luck. To do this, MPAC offers a somewhat clunky map interface which as far as I can tell doesn't work on a Mac. (I tried both Firefox and Safari). So, until I get my hands on a computer with Internet Explorer I think I'm sort of out of luck.
In the meantime though I'm still at a bit of a loss how all this will translate into my new property tax rate. The assessment takes pains to point out that an assessment increase does not necessarily mean my property taxes will increase so I'm sort of still wondering when and how that's going to be resolved.
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i guess it will work to your advantage tho because if it's worth what you paid, your property tax may be a different story. Also, on top of the 9% increase in water fee, i wish I didn't become a home owner!
For some reason, one condo I own is worth over $200k but gets assessed at $145... why? It's calculated by the land value, NOT the unit value. So the amount for selling the land my condo building lives on, divided by the owners of the individual units = my property value.
As Tim mentioned, detached/semi/split makes a difference too. If anyone is worrying about property taxes going up based on your MPAC, don't.
Your taxes and whatever increase the city chooses to levy, are always calculated based on previous taxes paid on the property (and therefore, rarely make a jump more than 2% skyward unless you own a GIANT house on lots of land).
From 2005 to 2008, MPAC says the value of my house went up by almost $40k. Yet now they believe it's <i>significantly less</i> than what it was in 2005 and what I paid for it last year...
What I'm wondering is if it's better to have your home valued at more, or less? Does having a higher assessment value mean more expensive property taxes, insurance, etc? How can the value have decreased so much if nothing much on the house has changed since 2005?
Any experts out there?
Now look at your assessment, take your old taxes and divide it by the old assessment value of your home. That will give you the old mill rate. Take that mill rate and reduce it by 22% then multiply that against the new assessment value.
Example.
old assessment : $360,000 tax = $2,639 = mill rate of .0073333
new assessment : $507,600 * (.0073333/1.22) = new tax of $3,051.
Keep in mind that the new tax of $3,051 is before any budgetary increase. You can most likely expect a minimum of 4% increase on top of that to equal $3,173.
No. Your assessment may say more about your neighbours' house values - and bidding wars - than it does about your own. I follow the local real estate scene very closely, and our lack of a second bath or finished basement makes MPAC's assessed value of our property a complete fantasy.
don't be confused. it's not about the value of your home. the value of your home is what the guy who wants to buy it is. if no one wants to pay more than $350K for your house then that is what it is worth. not a penny more.
So let me get this straight - MPAC is assessing your property as being worth much less that you just paid for it, and you plan to appeal that assessment and insist to them that your property is worth less than the assessed value?
You, sir, are a dick and a hypocrite. If I was running the assessment board, and your appeal came to me, I'd increase your assessment to match what you paid for the property. Hopefully that is within their power.
To everyone else: property taxes are just a game. No matter what happens in the game, you're not going to be paying much different than last year - the maximum change is probably around $200/year, for all "normal" sorts of properties in the city (not Bridal Path houses). So just relax. Your taxes will be more or less the same as last year.
How it actually works: the city sums up the total assessed value of all properties in the city. Then it decides how much money it needs to run. Then it figures out an assessment rate - the mill rate - to multiply by the first in order to get the second. So the tax RATE changes every year. The actual amount you pay goes up slowly due to inflation (the city budget will increase each year due to inflation), and also changes somewhat if the city spends more or less money, and also changes somewhat depending on how your property is doing COMPARED to other properties in the city.
The prior explanation of how the city does the actual calculation to determine mill rate (ie. how much we're going to be ground down this year) is simplistic, but more or less accurate.
@ Amar... renters don't pay property tax, don't really see why they care to see the value, but to be fair, you can get property values from most relators that are relatively close to MPAC. MPAC is an assessment that property owners pay for with part of their taxes (like in 2005, when we paid for two assessments, yay!)
If you truky think your assessed value is incorrect and too high, look at properties like yours in the area of your local neighbourhood.
Similar size property, similar ages, condition, lot size. Look at what properties like those have sold for in the last 2 years or so. If they are selling for more or have sold for more....your value is either good or undervalued. If you can really find propeties that are like yours that are not selling (on the market but not selling) or are selling for much less, contact MPAC
Please don't make MPAC out to be the big, bad wolf. The values are not created by MPAC but more a a mere reflection of the Real Estate market.
You can do a Request for Reconsideration, which is free of charge. The MPAC rep will look at comparable houses that have sold in the area and now, will inspect your property too. They will let you know the results and discuss it with you. They are not bad people...speak to them.
This is a point that seems to escape city hall. Even though there are volumes of academic and actual statistics proving just how value determines taxes and taxes affect value.
Now put your self in the position of a developer. If you build a 100 unit building as a multi residential apartment, because of the tax rate, the actual market value of that building would be approx. 100 * $80,000 = $8,000,000. Or for the same cost (land, construction, etc.) they could be worth $240,000 each. 100 * $240,000 = $24,000,000.
On the rental building they will collect $167,055 per year in property tax (8,000,0000 * 2.0881901%) or $141,332 per year if they were residential condos (24,000,000 * .5888434%).
Now you now why no one developed apartments until the city addressed the issue with a new property class, called "new multi residential" which is taxed the same as residential.
Now imagine you own a small commercial building in this city and use some of the capital you have built up to finance your business. In order to collect a little more in actual tax dollars the city's high tax rate has severely decreased the value of your property. This explains why Toronto has lost over 100,000 jobs in the last twenty years. The city is over a quarter of a million jobs behind its own projecions. On wonder when Toronto has the highest office taxes in the world and amoung the lowest residential taxes in the country.
And all of the efforts to make this a less opaque process seem to depend upon the web features, which as Tim mentioned, well... may not work.
While most of you are talking about increases, what does it mean if MPAC's assessment says the value has dropped?
For me, I paid way more than what it's been valued at now. From 2005 - 2008, the value went way up, but now it's super low. What does that mean?
It means keep a low profile as you will paying far less tax than you otherwise would if MPAC had gotten the value correct ;). It does not effect the real value of your home.
Assessment is an approximation, it does not guarantee that someone would pay that much if you actually sold your property.
With the increase in assessment for Toronto, it will LOWER the tax rate (used to be called mill rate). Otherwise people would have a 22% tax increase. City will likely make some increase in taxes, but less than 22%. If your assessment in Toronto increased by more than 22%, your tax bill will go up by more than just the city increase. However if your assessment increased by less than 22% then your tax increase will be lower than your neighbours.
If you would like a reliable current market value log onto their site and purchase a AVM; it's only 30 bucks and will include all the information you were legally obligated to provide for assessment purposes.
Buy one or other information sevices they provide; the MPAC managers bonus checks rely on it.
Here is the scam, MPAC cherry pick high values from sales and your not allowed to access this information.Cases have gone before FOI won but the Ontario courts ruled-no way.
Their argument is that the information is copyrighted and leased from a company called Trebnet(geo-warehouse).History, Ont gov. spent $billions to data all registry of properties and sale data. Sold it to a private org. This company lease the info to MPAC at $13 mill a year. It's making additional $millions.It's sold--to largest municipal unions pension funds.
MPAC is corp and untouchable non government idenity.It is funded by all municipal governments. Here is the catch--the more MPAC comes up with assessed values in total--it gets more dollars.
My experience is that 40% of proprties are over valued, The appeal process is also crooked. It's going to get worse.If you need sales--here is the only avenue-Geo-warehouse. Very expensive site and only some realistate offices have it and survy companies. Same info leased to MPAC. Tab your address and ownership and sales are at your fingertips with tax roll numbers and lot sizes and names of owners.It's mess
"No matter what happens in the game, you're not going to be paying much different than last year - the maximum change is probably around $200/year, for all "normal" sorts of properties in the city (not Bridal Path houses). So just relax. Your taxes will be more or less the same as last year."
Well I just got my levy and the increase is $623.99 over last year. No, I do not live in the Bridle Path.
Boy, I've seen some people screw up their estimates before, but not like you. Next post, why don't you give us some of your predictions for hot stocks so I know which ones to avoid...moron!
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I just received a copy of my property working sheets,which can only be acquire if Freedom of information is filed. Several pages called Fine tunning data printouts. Shocking--these AIPAC guys are slooping things together. Get yours and put an appeal.
P.S. Even if you win a reduction-- NOW,you don't get your deposit of appeal back. ARB appeals are another scam--do your homework--you will win :^/