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Single-family homeowners will see the regional tax burden shift slightly towards them

December 30th, 2015 · 8 Comments

Catching up on posting my stories here. This one from a few days ago, about the impact that the big spike in assessments will have for single-family homeowners.

There was some reaction on Twitter that, boohoo, these people making hundreds of thousands in real-estate profits should pay up without griping. So this is just a reminder that many, many people in the region don’t plan to sell, don’t plan to cash in, but have suddenly found their rather modest homes suddenly pushed up the value scale because of a few sales in their neighbourhoods. (I’ve heard of more than a few around Main and Fraser who got the letters saying their assessments will likely to be up by more than 25 per cent.)

For some, it will just mean paying a bigger tax increase than their condo neighbours. For others, it will mean that, plus losing part or all of their $570 ($770 for seniors) homeowner grant. You start losing it gradually as your house value goes past $1.1 million, according to the current regulations. Weirdly, the province actually lowered the limit from $1.3 million a couple of years ago.

As noted in the story, Burnaby council has already written to the B.C. Assessment Authority, suggesting that assessment values simply be frozen for this year.

Expect to hear more about this, as people start to figure out what the exact impact of the shift is.

 

 

 

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