On Monday, Airdronians received their property assessment by email (paper copies on the way), and some residents could not believe how much the city has their property assessed at.
The City of Airdrie follows Alberta legislation where they are required to update property assessments on an annual basis. This year's assessments are based on market conditions as of July 1, 2023, and physical conditions as of December 31, 2023.
Valerie Cottreau, City Assessor and the Team Leader for Assessment and Taxation explained Airdrie has seen strong sales activity, which means higher demand for housing bringing up the prices.
"If the market goes down next year, then we will adjust the assessments to reflect whatever the market is doing. But we have seen a strong increase in market values this year."
The City of Airdrie has a few tools for those who are interested in seeing how much they might be paying in property taxes called the tax estimator and property viewer map, which allows you to compare your assessment with any other assessment in the city. A third tool called the assessment value search tool shows the reasons why each property is assessed at what it is. These tools can be accessed on the City of Airdrie website.
Cottreau also explained any type of renovations done to your home also raise your assessed value.
"We're here to educate our residents and to help them in any way that we can. We have a very strong assessment team that's able to facilitate those conversations."
How much each homeowner will have to pay when it comes to property taxes is uncertain as a tax rate bylaw needs to go to the council in May before the tax notices will be sent out.
"Back in December, they (council) did approve a 6.99 per cent tax increase, but the assessments is how we distribute the taxes."
If you would like to dispute your assessed value, you can do so by contacting the city as there is a 60-day window from when the assessment was sent out.
"We can go through your property in detail and review the overall assessment. We do have to adhere to the municipal government act and legislation that's provided by the provincial government."
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Sat, Jul 27, 1:00 PM
Full-time, Permanent, Labour