We don’t have lower property taxes. Property value aside, take a five bedroom semi like mine and put it in Mississauga, and I guarantee I pay more. That’s because property tax is set as a percentage of its assessed value, and Mississauga is worth less. That‘s the problem with these property tax comparisons, they take a hypothetical equal value home, when they should be using a hypothetical house type. I bought my house in 1998, when it was about a quarter million, but now it’s valued at four times that, but my use of city services has not quadrupled, nor has my ability to pay quadrupled.
The comparison is accurate, IF, one uses a 'Market Value Assessment' approach, which is what the entire province uses.
You seem to want a 'Unit Value Assessment' approach, which I basically favour. One in which a calculation is done based on frontage, (determines length of road, watermain etc along your property), square footage (as a proxy for number of people), number of bathrooms and whether you have a pool (proxy for water/sewer) etc.
Here's the thing, in that model the average Toronto home would still be paying less than the typical home in Durham, York or Peel.
We know this, in part, because taxes aren't simply compared on an assessment basis; they are compared on a cash per household basis.
Lets take a look at the year 2016 for detailed stats.
Graphic above is from here:
https://johnowen.realtor/blog.html/why-are-property-taxes-so-high-in-oshawa-2952469
Note that this graphic above removes any reference to assessed value and looks instead at all taxes on an as paid basis.
While its certainly true that your home in Cabbagetown may be a bit smaller in sq ft or lot size than a home of comparable value in Oshawa............
The Toronto number above includes lots of detached homes in Scarborough and Etobicoke with larger lots sizes and comparable numbers of bedrooms at lesser assessed values.
So, even if you swapped out the MVA system for UVA, you wouldn't be changing that overall number for Toronto.
Instead, you'd be slightly lower that number for smaller homes of higher value; and increasing it for larger homes of lower value.
When you make an apples to apples comparison of similar homes, I selected a 3brm, 3bath, detached for Toronto, saw a property tax number under 4k per year if it was in Etobicoke or Scarborough on a typical property.
Where as the similar property in Oshawa had property tax of over 5k per year.
You are indeed a 'special case'..... in that your home's assessed value is high not just by GTA standards, but by City of Toronto ones as well.
Aiming for what you asked for: I searched semi-detached, 5 bedroom, for Toronto, those were too rare, so I rolled it back to 4bdrm to get a good sample size.
That gave me a Leslieville, 4bdrm Semi @ $999,000 listing price with $5,002 in annual property tax.
Where a comparator property in Mississauga, using that, I could only find one at $909,000 listing that was similar (4brdm semi), and its annual tax tab was $4,840
I tried to compare with Durham region and York but too few semis to get useful numbers; so I modified the search to detached, 4bdrm.
What I found was property taxes at just over $2,479 on the first listing and $3,397 on the second (both asking $999,000) in Toronto.
Listings:
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Be sure to read REALTOR.ca's terms of use before using the site regarding privacy, liability, termination of access, and more.
www.realtor.ca
By comparison, a 3brdm detached in Mississauga, valued at $989,000 for sale pays property tax of $5,286
Listing:
Be sure to read REALTOR.ca's terms of use before using the site regarding privacy, liability, termination of access, and more.
www.realtor.ca
I think your sense of what the 'average property tax bill is off a bit.