Chances are, if you are a homeowner and you got your assessment in the mail this week, you grimaced at what you saw. Whether it is up or down, people tend to fret about taxes or whether their investment is maturing.
But there are a few things we urge people to remember before winding up for a good rant.
The free market decides what your home is worth, not B.C. Assessment, which divines its numbers by looking at the sale prices of similar properties in the neighbourhood over the previous year. There might be some tea leaves and chicken entrails in there too.
And your local government sets the rate your home will be taxed at according to what will balance its budget and pay for capital needs. If taxes are higher than you'd like, our councils will welcome feedback on which services should be cut and which projects cancelled.
One of the takeaways from this year's numbers is that they're high - pretty much everywhere.
While homeowners may grumble about their assessments, we must also acknowledge what this means for the younger generation that is priced out of the market entirely. Affordable home ownership has for decades been one of the cornerstones of the middle class - and, by extension - the economy as a whole.
More than a place to hang your hat and raise a family, a home also represented equity and savings. With that out of reach for so many, we're troubled about what the long-term impacts may be.
The fact is that in New Westminster you'd be hard pressed to find a decent detached home for under $450,000.
Things have changed a lot since the baby boomers bought their homes and they could count on their home value rising considerably faster than their incomes.
Young people who want to be able to gripe about their own home assessments are going to have to carefully consider if it even makes sense to buy a home today given the economic reality.
