Ottawa Property Values Undersestimated

As we mentioned earlier this week, the resale housing market in Ottawa is staying strong. The Ottawa Citizen gave us more evidence of this with an article that talked about how homes are selling for as much as 15% over provincial assessments. MPAC - the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, an independent agency that evaluates all Ontario homes for property tax purposes, recently produce estimates for what they believed homes were worth as of January 2008. It turns out, however, that the property valuations may have been a bit on the low side, at least in Ottawa.

Lower priced homes were on average selling for 4% more than assessed value, while mid priced homes ($400,000 to $500,000) had a 10% gap. Luxury homes (those $600,000 and up) were on average selling for 15% above appraised value, at least according to the Ottawa Citizen. MPAC's vice president of property values notes that higher priced homes are probably being under-assessed as they likely have upgrades that have not yet been taken into account by the property evaluators.

So what does this all mean? Well if you own a home in the Ottawa area, you can make a pretty safe bet that your house is worth more than what's stated on your MPAC statement. What's more your property tax bill may be a little lower than you might expected given the actual value of your home.