Saskatoon property owners will be receiving their property reassessments in the mail in the next few days, which generally show residential values going down and commercial properties on the rise. However , City Assessor Bryce Trew says that doesn’t mean homeowners will see a reduction in their taxes. The math isn’t quite as simple as that.

The reassessments are based on property values from January of 2019 and the last time the values changed on taxes was two years prior in 2017. Trew explains that it’s provincial legislation to update every four years. To clarify, in 2015 the city’s properties were reassessed, then in 2017 the values changed to reflect that on property taxes. Two years later in January of 2019, the properties were again reassessed, leading to the possible tax change this year.

Trew says the reassessments are revenue neutral. The City still needs to collect the same amount of taxes to pay its bills, so the tax rate will have to change. For example, the average value of residential properties went down by 7 per cent. If your property value decreased more than that, your property tax will lower, with no change in taxes for any properties at a 7 per cent decrease in value and if your property had a 2 per cent reduction in value, your tax will go up.

Trew suggests going to the tax calculator on the city’s website to figure out what your estimated tax increase or decrease will be.

Click here for all the information on assessments.
Click here for the Revenue Neutral Property Tax Estimator:

Going deeper into the numbers, the median assessment is $344,000 for a single family home, a decrease of six per cent.
The average condo assessment is $209,900 which is a 12 per cent decrease
Multi-residential, which includes townhomes and low rise apartments, are assessed at around $1.4-million for a decrease of 11 per cent. Parcelled out, townhouses went down by 19 per cent and low rise apartments by 14 per cent. These are the largest decreases from this assessment.
Retail increased 24 per cent with a median assessment of just over $1.5-million.
Offices increased by 16 per cent with a median assessment of just under $1.38-million.
Industrial decreased by 10 per cent with a median assessment of just over $1.4-million.
Hotels decreased by 23 per cent, with a median assessment of just under $9.7-million.