What is the Difference Between Assessed Value and Market Value?

Video Script:

Hello I’m Aislynn Radley with Crosstown Marketing Group and Sutton Centre Realty and the question I am answering today is what does my assessed value mean in comparison to my market value?

Quite simply the assessed value is only used to calculate the taxes that you are going to pay to the city that you live in. Your market value means what is a buyer willing to pay you to own your property at a specific point in time.

BC Assessment actually calculates your assessed value using data from the first half of the year. In 2016 we had a market that was moving very quickly up until July. If you have a single family home, BC Assessment has used information from the first half of the year, so likely your assessed value is higher than your market value. If you have a condo or a townhome, those markets have continued to move up so the information that BC Assessment has used is probably putting your assessed value lower than what market value is because prices have continued to climb towards the end of the year.

In summary, you want your assessed values to be low and you want your market values to be high. If you currently think that your assessed value is higher than your market value then you might want to contest that by going to the evalues site to see what they are using to determine your assessed value. If you believe that your assessed value is lower than your market value then you are good and no need to do anything.

The way that you can contest your assessed value is by going to the evalues site and they will give you information there as to how to go about it or you can give us a call if you have any questions. Better yet you can contact us for a Market Snapshot Report which will actually show you sold prices which is the correct information to be using to determine market value.

I’m Aislynn with Crosstown Marketing Group and I talk Real Estate.