How property assessments impact taxes [Video]

As Windsor city councillors prepare to hear from residents about the proposed 2025 budget, homeowners are likely receiving property assessment letters in the mail.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) determines the assessed value of properties based on their current market value as of a specific valuation date.

MPAC typically conducts property assessments across Ontario every four years, but the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 put that process on hold.

As a result, homeowners in the province are paying property taxes based on 2016 assessment values.

According to historical data from the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors, the average sale price for a home at the end of 2016 was $220,053.

By November 2024, that figure had risen to $584,482 — a 165 per cent increase.

Some residents may assume that such a sharp rise in property values would lead to an equivalent increase in property taxes once MPAC conducts new …