Winners and losers among Saskatoon homeowners as property taxes shift

The property value of homes in Saskatoon has generally risen while the value of commercial buildings has generally dropped, according to the city's newest assessments. But that doesn't mean all homeowners will be paying more property tax.

By law, municipalities in Saskatchewan must reassess properties every four years. The latest assessments, which were released this week and used market data from before Jan. 1, 2023, saw the overall value of Saskatoon homes rise by about 13 per cent.

The actual change in any given homeowner's tax load will depend partially on where they land relative to that 13 per cent.

According to the city, if a homeowner's property value has:

• Risen by less than 13 per cent, or fallen, they are likely to pay less in annual taxes.
• Risen by about 13 per cent, their property tax will remain virtually the same.
• Risen by more than 13 per cent, their property taxes are likely to rise.

Saskatoon's overall property tax intake will remain the same, according to city assessor Bryce Trew, because it's a revenue-neutral process. However, the costs will be shifted depending on the rising and falling property value assessments.

Trew referred to the property tax taken in by the city as a metaphorical pie.

"The assessment portion is just deciding how big each slice of those pieces of pies are, so if your assessment is increasing you're going to have a little bit of a bigger piece of pie," he said.

"That tax share may go up or down, but it's all in relation to the average."

The City of Saskatoon has a property tax estimator on its website, though Trew cautions those numbers are not cemented, because city council and the Saskatchewan government still have to make some policy decisions that could affect the tax rate.

Homes in Brighton have risen in value, on average, the most in Saskatoon — about 22 per cent. In comparison, the value of homes in Kelsey-Woodlawn has dropped by about seven per cent.

"Obviously, with our market changing, updating from Jan. 1, 2019, to Jan. 1, 2023, that is the impact of what has happened in the market during that timeframe," Trew said.

Property values rise by $4.1B

Overall, assessed property values across the city rose by $4.1 billion from the last mass assessment.

Trew said appraisers reviewed property sales before Jan. 1, 2023, to determine what characteristics lead to value changes. The main factors are location, lot size, living area, quality of construction and age.

However, Trew said these assessments may not be an accurate appraisal of any given home in today's market, due to  being based on markets before 2023 and assessed on a mass scale.

Single-family residential properties values increased as a whole by 13 per cent, multi-family properties by 24 per cent and condos by five per cent.

"In a short period of time we went from a market that had a little bit excess inventory to a market that had a shortage of inventory and we've basically had a shortage of inventory ever since June 2020," said real estate analyst Josh Buchanan, who had not seen the city's reassessment report as spoke about the market in general.

He said that inventory shortage has led to a hot housing market.

In comparison, commercial property values dropped by two per cent overall.

Office, retail and hotel values all dropped by 10 per cent or more, while the value of industrial properties rose by 10 per cent.

"I know last reassessment cycle, obviously with COVID occurring in the middle of that, did have a significant impact on some of the modelling that we created," Trew said.

"Also, last cycle, we saw residential properties go down in value and commercial still continuing to do up, so we're starting to see a little bit of that correction to the market."

Trew said property owners should contact city assessors if they have questions or concerns and can file an appeal of their property assessment before Mar. 28.

Final property tax notices will be mailed out in May 2025.