Assessment values are slightly up in the tri-counties.
Typically, lower property assessment values are good news for taxpayers, not so good for municipal units and owners trying to sell their property.
Because municipal tax revenue is based partially on property assessment value, rising assessments mean a bit more money in the pot for them.
Although there are many variables connected to a market price, when it comes to selling a property, assessed value can come up as a point of argument for a potential buyer if it’s significantly lower than the asking price.
Carlos Resendes, senior manager valuation at Property Valuation Services (PVS), says assessments are derived (in great part) from sales in the market.
Assessments mailed out in January reflect a base day as of Jan. 1, 2017.
Resendes says there were 72 sales in the Town of Yarmouth (up .97 per cent) and 199 (up 2.53 per cent) in the Municipality of Yarmouth from Jan. 1, 2016 to Jan. 1, 2017.
“That’s sort of in line with the trend that we’re seeing across the province: - 2 to + 2 per cent,” he said.
He added that he would hesitate to assign any sort of sustained increase in the markets to this uptick in value.
“The market is flat across the province and the two per cent would be in that range. It’s going to take two, three or four years to see what the trend is,” he said.
“You could have an uptick this year and a downtick next year.”
The Town of Digby had 29 sales (up .1 per cent) and the Municipality of Digby 134 (up 1.48).
The Town of Shelburne had 32 sales (up .63 per cent) and the Municipality of Shelburne 120 (up 1.15 per cent).
“Until you see a sustained trend then it’s difficult to draw any meaningful conclusion from any given year because it takes time to see what the market is doing,” said Resendes.
More about assessments
Property Valuation Services Corporation mailed more than 600,000 assessments in mid-January for 2018.
The total assessment in Nova Scotia for this year is $106,641,493,300, up 1.29 per cent from the 2017 total assessment. That breaks down to $82,723,454,200 in residential assessment for 2018, up 1.52 per cent from 2017. The total residential property assessment after the annual cap is taken into account is $74,819,827,700, a 2.26 per cent increase from the year before.
The commercial assessment for 2018 is $23,918,039,100, a 0.49 per cent hike from 2017.
Property owners can view details about their assessment by visiting this site.
Assessment appeals are accepted by Property Valuation Services until midnight, Feb. 15.
Property Valuation Services representatives and assessors are available to answer questions or discuss an assessment at 1-800-380-7775 from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
