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How much is your home (really) worth?

How much is your home (really) worth?

There’s always a lot of interest each year when the B.C. Assessment Authority updates its database of assessed values for homes in the province. With good reason, too.

Among other things, assessed values are what the Provincial Government uses to determine how much you’ll have to pay in property taxes. They can also give you a good overview of which direction home prices are heading in across B.C., in your municipality or in your neighbourhood.

But there’s a big difference between the assessed value of a property, and its true market value. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the next 12 months, it’s important to understand what those differences are if you want to avoid any potentially unpleasant surprises later on.

Assessed value vs. market value

The assessed value of a home is basically an estimate of how much a home is worth right now.

Because assessors can’t carry out a detailed assessment of every individual property in the province (like, say, your REALTOR® can!), they have to base their estimates on a few generic factors. This includes things like where the property is located, the size and age of the home, the sale price of similar homes in the same area, and a few other measurable characteristics like whether there’s a garage or whether or not the home has a nice view.

As a result, the assessed value of a property is a rough estimate at best, which is usually based on comparing the home to other similar properties rather than on the unique characteristics of the property itself. In addition, because the main purpose of an assessed value is to help the province with its property tax calculations, assessed values are fixed for the entire year, regardless of what’s actually happening in the marketplace.

The market value of a home, on the other hand, is what that home is actually worth to the buyer or seller in real-world dollars, on the exact day that it’s bought or sold. Rather than being a fixed amount based on an annual snapshot of similar prices, the market value is shaped on a daily basis by the forces of supply and demand. It’s also influenced by just how much effort you’re willing to put in to get the best possible price.

Because it’s unique to a single property, the market value of a home takes into account more individual factors than a generalized assessed value ever could. Often, these are the exact characteristics that can make two seemingly similar homes on the same street sell for prices that are hundreds of thousands of dollars apart.

An assessed value, for example, would never consider things like the curb appeal or landscaping of a home, how close it is to schools or transit, the interior design and layout, any upgrades that have been made to the interior of the home, or what the current inventory is like in the community where the home is located.

Assessments also don’t consider the unique features or emotional “feel” of a home that can make buyers fall in love with a property and be willing to pay a premium for it – in spite of the fact that those features can have a huge impact on not only the list price of a property, but how long it’s on the market and whether or not it inspires a bidding war.

Which one should you focus on?

The question of which of these two numbers is more important to you depends entirely on why you need to know, and what your plans are for the property in the near future.

If you just want to see if your property taxes are going to go up or down this year, you can enter the address in the B.C. Assessment database to find the assessed value for 2025. But if you want to find out how much your home is really worth today in Vancouver’s ever-changing real estate market, talk to your REALTOR® or contact us for a free individualized market evaluation.

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