Leaping Lizards
My friend, Bob Ransford, contributed an excellent and thoughtful piece to the Vancouver Sun yesterday on the need for better planning in Greater Vancouver.
Give it a read.
Then, explain this mystery to me.
Two friends of mine - one lives in Shaughnessy in half a beautiful old mansion, and the other lives on 4 acres in the Gulf Islands in a log house he built with his own hands 40 years ago - have had their property assessments jump 60% this year.
That's right.
60%!
Short of discovering crude in the back yard, what could possibly justify this unholy demand for more tax money.
60% raise in one year?
They can't afford that and both are contesting this arbitrary and cruel "adjustment."
I can't.
Could you?
Should we?
4 comments:
We got to pay for the Olympics don't we? Campbell has bankrupted the province for his own ends of course we must pay!
By the way, the Evil Eye's property assessment dropped 25% - but then, when one lives in one of the most incompetently run municipalities in the region, these things happen.
Let us know what the actual tax increases turn out to be. The assessments are only one part of the equation, but ... yeah, 60 % does seem abnormally high!
Well, what seems high to me is how real estate prices took off so aggressively a few years ago. My wife and I sold a small condo in early 2005. We both watched in amazement (and some regret) as prices for similar units rose by approximately 70% over the next 18 months before they leveled out. Explain how intrinsic value of property can climb so fast. I seriously doubt there are that many more people trying to live in our old neighborhood. Property assessments are supposedly based on market value. A 60% jump in one year doesn't seem to be that crazy, especially if it has trailed a real estate boom by a couple of years.
people should remember that their 2008 assessments were frozen at the 2007 level due to the economic slowdown.
That cap is no longer in place and would explain the big jump.
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