Justine Hunter, Globe & Mail, Jan 9, 2017
B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong will raise the threshold for the province’s homeowner grant this week, after the skyrocketing value of British Columbian homes threatened to cut many homeowners out of the property-tax relief program because their residences are now worth too much.
Mr. de Jong said Monday he will have details later this week of the new threshold,
Jeff Nagel, Peace Arch News, January 9, 2017
Some homeowners are in panic mode after receiving property assessments in the mail this month showing huge jumps in their valuations.
And more of them than usual are in a mood to fight back.
That’s the take of Steve Miller, a senior appraiser at Bakerview Realty Appraisals, which handles assessment appeals across the Lower Mainland.
“There’s just a sense of shock and disbelief among the public with respect to assessments right now,”
Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, January 5, 2017
Looking across the entire Lower Mainland, it was detached homes in Richmond Brighouse neighbourhood that saw the biggest increase in 2017 property assessments, though White Rock was the biggest community to see its average assessment shoot over the threshold for the B.C. Homeowner Grant.
Those results were pulled from data provided to Postmedia by property-data firm Landcor Data Corp., which compiled neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood changes in 2017 property valuations by the B.C.
Joanne Lee-Young, The Province, January 04, 2017
Dramatic gains in assessed property values across B.C. mean twice as many homeowners as last year will no longer qualify for tax relief via the province’s homeowner grant program.
That’s because their homes are — on paper, in a snapshot captured at July 2016 — worth too much.
This year, only 83 per cent of homeowners in B.C. will qualify for a grant as the province’s program currently exists,
Mike Hager, The Globe and Mail, Jan. 04, 2017
The skyrocketing value of British Columbian homes would cut twice as many homeowners out of property-tax relief from the provincial government this year compared to last because their residences are now worth too much.
Last year, 91 per cent of all homes in the province were covered by the homeowner grant program, which offers $570 to owners of properties with an assessed value of less than $1.2-million.