Welcome to 2022!
We are excited for the new year, we believe our market will remain strong and we are hopeful Covid-19 will dissipate this year.
The real estate market did very well in 2021 with price increases throughout the Central Okanagan and across almost every region in BC, however, the increase in property assessments was still a bit of a shock. According to BC assessment single family homes in Kelowna and West Kelowna had an average assessment increase of 34% and in Lake Country an increase of 32%. On a one million dollar property, that’s an average increase of $320,000 to $340,000 in one year! In comparison, the City of Vancouver assessments’ increased by just 16%, while Langley and Surrey increased 39% and 34% respectively. One city with the highest increase in BC was Hope, where assessments increased 45%. With higher assessments comes higher taxes paid which can be detrimental to some. If you are looking to appeal your property assessment you have until January 31st to file a written notice to appeal. You can learn more about this process at bcassessment.ca.
As well, if you are interested to learn how they assess a property we encourage you to watch the video below:
If you are thinking of selling or looking to see what your property may be worth on the market today, please let us know. We are happy to offer you a market evaluation (typically property values are higher than assessments) and can certainly provide comparable sales to your home should you decide to appeal your assessment.
Please let us know if you have any questions at all, as always we are happy to speak to you anytime!
Shannon and Tamara