Assessed value vs market value
The BrokerFold Team — Product + Engineering
Last reviewed
Assessed value is what a government valuation body says your property is worth for the purpose of dividing up property taxes. Market value is what a willing buyer pays a willing seller today. They are different numbers produced by different methods for different jobs — and the recurring homeowner mistake, in both directions, is treating the tax number as an appraisal.
Who assesses, and as of when
In Ontario, MPAC — the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation — values every property using mass-appraisal models, and the values on current tax rolls trace to a valuation date years in the past, because the province has repeatedly postponed reassessment. In BC, BC Assessment revalues annually, as of July 1 of the previous year, with the property’s condition taken later in the fall — which is why the January assessment notice describes last summer’s market. Either way, the number is a modelled estimate at a fixed historical date, produced without anyone walking through your kitchen.
Why the gap is normal
Mass appraisal is built for fairness across hundreds of thousands of properties, not precision on yours. It can’t see the gut renovation, the water issue, the exceptional lot, or the tired original interior behind a handsome facade — and it can’t see the months of market movement since its valuation date. In a rising market assessments run below sale prices; in a falling one they lag above; in any market, individual homes scatter widely around the model. A sale price meaningfully different from the assessment is not evidence anyone got a deal — it’s the two numbers doing their different jobs.
What to use instead
For what a home is worth today, the evidence is recent sold data for genuinely comparable homes — the raw material of an agent’s CMA — read against market-level trend measures like the benchmark price for direction. Sellers get that analysis from a listing consultation; homeowners who just want a current read are exactly who home valuation pages on an agent’s site exist for, and any instant estimate worth taking seriously says what a mass model can and can’t know. The assessment, meanwhile, has one legitimate consumer use: if it’s badly wrong relative to comparable neighbours, appeal it — that’s a property tax argument, and it’s the one conversation where the assessed number is the point.
Frequently asked questions
My assessment went up — will my property taxes rise the same amount?
Not directly. Taxes depend on your assessment relative to everyone else's and on the rate your municipality sets to raise its budget. If every home's assessment rose similarly, your share of the pie — and your bill — may barely move.
Should I use the assessment to set my list price?
No. Assessments are mass-produced for taxation, dated to a valuation date months or years past, and blind to your renovation, your lot's quirks and this month's market. Pricing comes from recent comparable sales — the analysis behind a proper CMA.
Keep reading
- Benchmark price Why the MLS HPI benchmark price, the average, and the median can tell three different stories about the same market — and which one to trust for what.
- Sold data Sold data is the record of what properties actually sold for. Where it lives in Canada, who may display it, and how a VOW puts it on your website.
- Home valuation pages The What's-my-home-worth funnel on a BrokerFold site: a multistep wizard, an instant range from real sold comparables, and seller leads in your CRM.