In the coming days, about 494,000 property owners throughout the Fraser Valley region can expect to receive their 2019 assessment notices.
These notices reflect their property’s market value as of July 1, 2018.
“The majority of residential homeowners within the Fraser Valley can expect a modest change compared to last year’s assessment,” said Fraser Valley deputy assessor Brian Smith. “This past year, we continued to see strong market activity in the strata residential market throughout the region, whereas the single-family residential market was relatively stable.”
In Mission, the average single-family residential property was assessed at $698,000 compared to $633,000 last year. That’s an increase of about 10 per cent.
The average Mission strata property (apartment) was assessed at $321,000, up 30 per cent from last year’s value of $246,000.
Townhouses in the Mission area have increased by about 12 per cent from $363,000 last year to $406,000.
These figures are based on average Mission properties.
Two Mission-area properties were assessed at a value of more than $4 million.
The highest assessed property was 11540 Glacier Drive ($4,487,000) followed by 31895 Keystone Ave. ($4,106,000).
There are no Mission properties on the top 100 list for the Fraser Valley. The highest assessed property in the Fraser Valley is located at 17146 20th Ave. in Surrey and is assessed at $31.6 million.
Overall, the Fraser Valley’s total assessments increased from almost $489.8 billion in 2018 to more than $540.4 billion this year. A total of almost $10.7 billion of the region’s updated assessments is from new construction, subdivisions and rezoning of properties.
BC Assessment’s website at bcassessment.ca includes more details about 2019 assessments, property information and trends such as lists of 2019’s top valued residential properties across the province. The website also provides self-service access to a free, online property assessment search service that allows anyone to search, check and compare 2019 property assessments for anywhere in the province.
“Property owners can find a lot of information on our website, including answers to many assessment-related questions, but those who feel that their property assessment does not reflect market value as of July 1, 2018 or see incorrect information on their notice, should contact BC Assessment as indicated on their notice as soon as possible in January,” Smith said.
“If a property owner is still concerned about their assessment after speaking to one of our appraisers, they may submit a notice of complaint (appeal) by Jan. 31, 2019, for an independent review by a property assessment review panel.”
Smith also said it is “important to understand that increases in property assessments do not automatically translate into a corresponding increase in property taxes. How your assessment changes relative to the average change in your community is what may affect your property taxes.”