The new BC Assessments are out and as I review property listing prices with sellers and potential buyers, the inevitable question comes up “What about our BC Assessment”?
First, remember that the BC Assessment is to allow municipalities to tax you fairly. It is ostensibly a value of the property but it does not represent what value the marketplace puts on your property.
There are always anomalies and the BC Assessment is a guideline at best. In an appreciating market, the sale price is usually above the assessment – remember, the assessment is the value on July 1 for the previous year. In a declining market, we see the assessed value and the sale prices align more closely.
The more recent a home has sold, the more accurate the assessment will be because it gets reset based on the sale price. So a home that has not sold for 20 years could have an assessment that doesn’t represent the actual value. Improvements could have been missed and the assessment only goes up or down based on the average in the area. For instance, consider a home that has not sold for more than 20 years. The developed basement was not in place 20 years ago and other upgrades have not been accounted for.
I see homes sell $200,000 over assessed and $200,000 under assessed. Surprisingly, I ran a few reports this week and overall, in the last 90 days, homes are selling close to the BC Assessment. In 100 home sales, there were a few way over, a few way under but the average was 98% to 102% of assessment. If you are interested, I can refine this report down to homes more like yours which will give us a better ‘over-all’ picture of relatively similar homes.
And finally, you can put the price where-ever you want. This is your home. My role is to report back to you what the market is saying and where the market-place currently puts the value, and of course, marketing the home and property and working with you to make it shine in its best light.
If you’d like to see your recent BC assessment online you can visit https://www.bcassessment.ca/
