Raise the Hammer

JonC, according to the MPAC people, updates to assessed values have taken place in 2008, 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 and 1996.

>> Maintaining a property doesn't increase your taxes and letting it go to shit doesn't decrease them.

According to MPAC, assessed values are based primarily on the sales comparison approach. In other words, they look at sales prices of similar homes in the same area and then they tweak numbers to account for differences in lot size, age, renovations and quality of construction.

Therefore, if a theoretical neighbourhood in Hamilton does nothing but improve the inside of the homes, this will still increase the assessed value of that area because it will show up in the market prices when they are sold. In contrast, if another area of the city makes less improvements to their homes, market sales prices will be lower and this will reduce assessed values.

Ultimately, the primary factor that increases assessments are market sales prices and higher sales prices can be the result of any quality improvement, inside or outside, including insulation, new kitchens, or painting the exterior of your house.

That's why fixing tax rates to assessed values, which really means fixing tax rates to market values, reduces overall property investments and the quality of housing stock in the city. Since we know that making a property newer and better to look at does not increase the amount of needed government services, why should people pay higher taxes just because they do just that.

Conversely, why should people that allow their homes to get run down and sell for lower market prices be rewarded with lower tax bills? That is the equivalent of giving tax-breaks to someone for spraying grafitti on the sidewalk. The city is rewarding lazy people and punishing people that want to make their neighbourhood look better.