Windsor, Ont. — A report from a Toronto brokerage lists Windsor with the highest property tax rate in the province.
According to Zoocasa, the city’s tax rate of 1.8 per cent topped the list, out of 35 municipalities.
The report states that property taxes vary across the province based on a municipalities population, operating budgets and local housing market.
The City of Toronto has the lowest property tax rate for 2021, at 0.6 per cent.
A larger municipality can offer a lower property tax rate due to a larger pool of tax payers, the report states.
Meaning, a homeowner with a property valued at $500,000 would pay $3,055.07 in property taxes in 2021, but a homeowner in Windsor with the same property value would have a tax bill of $9,093.34.
The tax rates were sourced from each municipalities website.
The Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors says house prices continue to soar across the region.
The average sale price for October 2021 was $565,278, an increase of 31.73 per cent from the previous year.
The other element to a city’s tax rate is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), but the provincial government froze value assessments at 2016 levels through the 2024 tax year, as part of COVID-19 tax relief efforts.
“The province is going to have to look at this,” says Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens.
“Figure out a pathway to make sure there is a soft landing that when the reassessment happens in 2024 that it is done in a responsible way and does not provide an undue burden to those who are paying these property taxes.”
A link to the full report can be found here.
