Cost of housing in Canada

[Lumber]

I don't think you would, and I don't think our property taxes would have risen as much.

The reason we have to keep putting them up is the cap, we need to raise taxes to cover the shortfall it creates.

Mind you we also need a city council that understands needs V wants...

Ive been in my house 15 years, I am capped. And I think its wrong.

Capped as in it never goes up? How does that work? How is that even at thing?

 

[Halifax Tar]

Capped as in it never goes up? How does that work? How is that even at thing?

I dont understand your question.

Capped Assessment Program (CAP) | Property Valuation Services Corporation

In addition to providing annual property assessments, PVSC administers the Capped Assessment Program (CAP) on behalf of the Nova Scotia Government. The Capped Assessment Program (CAP) places a ‘cap’ on the amount that the taxable assessment for eligible residential property can increase year...

www.pvsc.ca

 

[mariomike]

Home buyers calculating Property taxes across Canada may find this of interest to the discussion,

Canada Property Tax Guide 2026​

Highest to Lowest Property Taxes Across Canada in 2026​

Major Cities With the Highest and Lowest Property Taxes Across Canada​

Canada Property Tax Guide 2026 - nesto.ca

Compare property taxes across Canada by province and city. Learn how municipal tax rates affect your mortgage qualification and affordability.

www.nesto.ca

 

[Brad Sallows]

Capped as in it never goes up? How does that work? How is that even at thing?

They pretend to limit the change of an exogenous variable which is beyond their control from which they calculate a result.

Control freaks, who exercise a strange kind of denial when the real world exceeds the parameters within which they want to operate.

 

[foresterab]

No, they are always lower than true market value (or at least mine have always been). It was the same when I lived in Ontario; the assessed value was always lower than the market rate, but the two would go up together, just not always by the same amount.

I always took it as a rule that legally assessed values for tax purposes were always less than market value, but now that I think of it I have no idea if that's a universal truth.

In terms of property assessments I've been using it as an annual "health" check of my house value. Bought 15+ years ago in a "low" point and saw tax assessment drop next year to just under what I paid...and now it's only up +8%. That said when looking at similar homes in the neighborhood that have sold I find the office property tax assessment about $25K below market list price. So if I was to list my home I'd be in the +16-20% profit range or to express it another way...1% gain per year.

Thankfully housing in town hasn't been bad. Raw rural land though has doubled in price in the last 5 years and seems to continue to increase at a vastly different rate than housing.

 

[Deleted member 175000]

Everyone who stays in a house longer than intended before downsizing is militating against solving the "housing crisis".

Which is already happening due to people feeling entitled to 2021-2022 valuations and not being willing to take the "hit" of selling a property for 3-6 times what they paid instead of the 4-7 (depending on how long they've been in it)

Ha- put a downsizing/exiting seniors exemption/credit that is not applicable for deemed disposition upon death

 

[Eaglelord17]

It will encourage people to sit on property as long as possible and refrain from sinking money into upgrades. (It yields incentives similar to rent controls.) This is a good policy only if you favour stagnation.

People already sit on properties. No one is downsizing these days, the boomers are preferring to hold on to the properties and live off the equity.

This would hurt the housing market value. Most of it is only being borne by people who already owned homes before the prices went nuts. Basically if you can't transfer capital from a already owned property you aren't getting into one.

My house was 167k when I bought it 7 years ago. Today it would be at least 300k, maybe towards 400k. I couldn't step into the market if I had to buy my house at todays rate. I couldn't upgrade if I wanted to without having owned a house at the lower rate. And this is a fairly depressed housing market in comparison to most the country.

The only people who win with the nonsensical housing market we have today are those who owned before prices went crazy and are selling for good, the banks, and the municipalities (and even then only if they are able to adjust to current rates).

It kills investment in this country. It kills population growth. It kills having children. It kills our youth having a future. It kills businesses from starting. People need to make that much more money to actually get ahead and most jobs can't afford to pay that amount.

We waste so much money going into housing, literally doing nothing except paying interest to the banks because magically the prices jumped. If prices were lower people would have more money to spend elsewhere, stimulating the economy, encouraging population growth, and making things better for society.

I also don't say this as a hypocrite. I own property bought before prices went nuts. I would technically lose if prices were to drop dramatically. But it is better for the nation and I am willing to make that sacrifice because of that.

 

[YZT580]

Nope. My proposal was a 14.5% tax on the difference between the sale price and the inflation adjusted cost base.

Assuming "several decades" = 4 placing the purchase at 1986 and you didn't do any permit requiring upgrades/additions- that would mean an inflation adjusted cost based 2.77 times that of your purchase price. Call that purchase price 100k, and using your 800k sale from earlier, that would be a windfall of 523, tax of 76k. Assuming mortgage free, after real estate commissions and that tax still netting 692k. Invested at 5% and withdrawing 40k per year (increasing the withdrawal 2% per year for inflation), that 672 supports 21-24 years of covering a "decent home"

So what? Our careful savings and budgeting means that our children have a chance at owning their own homes; which they do along with the associated mortgage payments. It means their children have a chance at advanced education with a little help from their own parents. Your 76000 windfall tax pays for one trip across Canada in your shiny new Airbus but without catering. In other words you want to enable the government to squander even more than they are now without being accountable. My generation has enabled your generation (assuming you are at least 30 years younger than myself) to go to university, to purchase an F150 to tow your 28 ft. camper or your fishing boat and take a one week cruise annually on Celebrity simply by being in an earned position to help out. Our money goes a lot further than the same money in government hands and we do it without borrowing and leaving it to your kids to pay. I have read a lot of bitching about us old folks but I haven't seen a lot of gratitude expressed for what you have attained as a result.

 

[Eaglelord17]

So what? Our careful savings and budgeting means that our children have a chance at owning their own homes; which they do along with the associated mortgage payments. It means their children have a chance at advanced education with a little help from their own parents. Your 76000 windfall tax pays for one trip across Canada in your shiny new Airbus but without catering. In other words you want to enable the government to squander even more than they are now without being accountable. My generation has enabled your generation (assuming you are at least 30 years younger than myself) to go to university, to purchase an F150 to tow your 28 ft. camper or your fishing boat and take a one week cruise annually on Celebrity simply by being in an earned position to help out. Our money goes a lot further than the same money in government hands and we do it without borrowing and leaving it to your kids to pay. I have read a lot of bitching about us old folks but I haven't seen a lot of gratitude expressed for what you have attained as a result.

Only a very few children will have said chance. The vast majority will not.

The majority even if their parents owned their home, blew it on HELOCs and other such accounts to fund luxurious lifestyles/retirements.

And if your parents don’t leave a paid off home to you, good luck on ever owning a home in todays market in most the country.

My family wasn't particularly wealthy. They didn't pay for my education. The max I got was living rent free at my parents house well in college working pretty much full time at the same time. Which was still a leg up, and I am thankful for it, but it isn't anything near what you are describing.

You want gratitude? How about not having screwed over the future generations with policies that have actively harmed them, by not removing supports and benefits your generation received but refuse to pass on to the next. Literally being given the ladder by your parents to climb then pulling it up after you got to the top instead of fighting to keep it in place.

Pensions? Worse or non-existent for the next generation with the exemption of government jobs. Housing? Skyrocketing, a large part of it being directly due to policies cancelled by your generation (interesting how not building public housing since the 90s does that).

Wages? Stagnant for decades, not keeping up anywhere near inflation. Healthcare? Actively choosing to underfund for decades has lead to our system at the verge of collapse. Military? We are almost at the point of being disarmed because of systemic underfunding for decades. Government debt? Very low until your generation took over and started paying the bills with the futures money. Job opportunities? Much lower except in the fields your generation actively worked against training people in. Student loans? A debt trap which in most cases isn’t fiscally worth the cost.

Maybe you did right by your kids, but the majority did not. The future isn’t bright for the youth today, they are the first generation in Canadian history expected to live worse lives than their parents. That isn’t something to be proud of.

 

[Brad Sallows]

You want gratitude? How about not having screwed over the future generations with policies that have actively harmed them, by not removing supports and benefits your generation received but refuse to pass on to the next. Literally being given the ladder by your parents to climb then pulling it up after you got to the top instead of fighting to keep it in place.

Which programs are you thinking of when you think of "supports and benefits...received but refuse to pass on"?

Check out the federal rates here.

• note the trends in tax rates for the former 2, now 3, lowest tax rate brackets
• value of basic exemption has been rising faster than inflation and increasing relative to median income
• ditto upper bound of lowest tax rate bracket

Not everything is bad.

One of the things pushing up housing costs is federal subsidies to families. More money = more power to bid a little higher. Approximately the same result is obtained for any demand-side subsidy. Not a lot of people demanding removal of all the new spending introduced in the last decade...

 

[YZT580]

Only a very few children will have said chance. The vast majority will not.

The majority even if their parents owned their home, blew it on HELOCs and other such accounts to fund luxurious lifestyles/retirements.

And if your parents don’t leave a paid off home to you, good luck on ever owning a home in todays market in most the country.

My family wasn't particularly wealthy. They didn't pay for my education. The max I got was living rent free at my parents house well in college working pretty much full time at the same time. Which was still a leg up, and I am thankful for it, but it isn't anything near what you are describing.

You want gratitude? How about not having screwed over the future generations with policies that have actively harmed them, by not removing supports and benefits your generation received but refuse to pass on to the next. Literally being given the ladder by your parents to climb then pulling it up after you got to the top instead of fighting to keep it in place.

Pensions? Worse or non-existent for the next generation with the exemption of government jobs. Housing? Skyrocketing, a large part of it being directly due to policies cancelled by your generation (interesting how not building public housing since the 90s does that).

Wages? Stagnant for decades, not keeping up anywhere near inflation. Healthcare? Actively choosing to underfund for decades has lead to our system at the verge of collapse. Military? We are almost at the point of being disarmed because of systemic underfunding for decades. Government debt? Very low until your generation took over and started paying the bills with the futures money. Job opportunities? Much lower except in the fields your generation actively worked against training people in. Student loans? A debt trap which in most cases isn’t fiscally worth the cost.

Maybe you did right by your kids, but the majority did not. The future isn’t bright for the youth today, they are the first generation in Canadian history expected to live worse lives than their parents. That isn’t something to be proud of.

here's a bit of a heresy for you. If kids had put their phones down and got off their asses they would be making out just fine. If families had been content with 1100 sq. ft. for a house along with the 2 kids they would be fine. If you (the royal you) were content with a 16 ft. aluminum with a 5 hp. Johnson towed by a nice reliant automobile, a 12 X 12 Woodsman instead of a 28 ft. trailer, etc. you would be doing just fine as well. The principal reason for the mess we are in is plain, simple greed coupled with laziness. That is why my neighbours import labour from Jamaica. Tim Hortons didn't start off bringing in off-shore help it is partially the result of being unable to find students willing to work; that plus an unrealistic minimum wage. The buck and a quarter an hour I started off at wasn't a livable wage but a starting wage to help fund school. Delivering the star at 2 cents a paper wasn't livable either but it paid for my first bike.

I read comments here and I shudder at how much people expect. The best thing that could happen is government reverting to paving roads and guarding the boarders whilst leaving its citizens to fend for themselves for food, daycare, medical and yes I am old and in the past but it really wasn't so bad when we looked after ourselves. Just spend a week in any Mennonite community and watch. Rant off.

 

[Halifax Tar]

here's a bit of a heresy for you. If kids had put their phones down and got off their asses they would be making out just fine. If families had been content with 1100 sq. ft. for a house along with the 2 kids they would be fine. If you (the royal you) were content with a 16 ft. aluminum with a 5 hp. Johnson towed by a nice reliant automobile, a 12 X 12 Woodsman instead of a 28 ft. trailer, etc. you would be doing just fine as well. The principal reason for the mess we are in is plain, simple greed coupled with laziness. That is why my neighbours import labour from Jamaica. Tim Hortons didn't start off bringing in off-shore help it is partially the result of being unable to find students willing to work; that plus an unrealistic minimum wage. The buck and a quarter an hour I started off at wasn't a livable wage but a starting wage to help fund school. Delivering the star at 2 cents a paper wasn't livable either but it paid for my first bike.

I read comments here and I shudder at how much people expect. The best thing that could happen is government reverting to paving roads and guarding the boarders whilst leaving its citizens to fend for themselves for food, daycare, medical and yes I am old and in the past but it really wasn't so bad when we looked after ourselves. Just spend a week in any Mennonite community and watch. Rant off.

That is probably the most out of touch thing I have read in a long time. You're completely disregarding the fact it's us, you and I, the older generations who created and have greatly benefited this greedy environment.

I'm Gen X.

And now we're gate keeping access to it out of our own greed.

Our oncoming generations aren't lamenting their inability to buy big campers or boats. They want to be able to afford a house, raise a family and buy groceries.

 

[Brad Sallows]

That is probably the most out of touch thing I have read in a long time. You're completely disregarding the fact it's us, you and I, the older generations who created and have greatly benefited this greedy environment.

Every prior generation has tried to improve its situation; until recently, the needle was difficult to move appreciably. Everyone benefits from the "greedy environment". Everyone not in a secure well-compensated mandated job has to first compete to satisfy others' needs before he can satisfy his own - unless he has some kind of grift going or dependency qualification which entitles him to individual transfers.

I see no evidence that recent generations are going to start backing off the one-way regulatory and program spending ratchets that characterize almost all governments in Canada. Too many things in Canada are insulated from market pricing discipline. That is the real foundation of Canada's problems.

 

[YZT580]

That is probably the most out of touch thing I have read in a long time. You're completely disregarding the fact it's us, you and I, the older generations who created and have greatly benefited this greedy environment.

I'm Gen X.

And now we're gate keeping access to it out of our own greed.

Our oncoming generations aren't lamenting their inability to buy big campers or boats. They want to be able to afford a house, raise a family and buy groceries.

I didn't create it nor did most of my compatriots. We did prosper from it but that was pure luck like starting at the bottom of a pyramid scheme. It definitely wasn't planned. And I started off by declaring it to be heresy. We tend to blame others and circumstances instead of sucking up and making do with what we have and buying what we can afford. The one thing we did have that people don't now is a pension. If you don't think people are still collecting things then explain to me why the most popular vehicle on the market is an F150? Generation X only spans 15 years and could be categorized as the "I want" era. But you also were a group that went out to work and took whatever jobs you could find to achieve the things you desired. You are also a competitive bunch trying to outdo your parents; thus the 2000 sq. ft. two story homes on a postage stamp lot. You created the problem that you are complaining about by not instilling that same work ethic in your children. They have gone from the I want to the Gimme group and weren't willing to do the dirty stuff to obtain it. So now we have migratory workers who, in some ways could be compared to 19th century slaves or indentured servants. Not to serve us but to keep our hands free from calluses and the dirt out from under our nails. I am not out of touch with the world, it is you who are out of touch with reality.

You want something you work for it. You don't expect the government to give it to you and you don't mortgage your future (are you listening Carney) to obtain what you can't afford. I am done