SASKATOON -- Some homeowners could see a slight reduction in their property taxes thanks to the latest round of assessments.

The city’s assessor, Bryce Trew, says assessments fell from $43 billion in 2020 to $41.3 billion in 2021.

In the latest assessment year, 2019, commercial assessment account for $9.9 billion, an eight per cent increase from the 2015, while residential assessments account for $31.4 billion, a seven per cent drop from 2015.

“What this means is from Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 1, 2019 there was a shift in the market and the residential market has dropped and conversely the assessments have dropped,” Trew said.

“The assessed value of a property is calculated for taxation purposes only, and it’s an estimate based on sold properties in a given market area,” the city said in a news release.

If a residential property has a 10 per cent reduction in its 2021 assessed value the owner will have a decrease in property tax.

A reduction of seven per cent will result in no change and a two per cent reduction will result in a tax increase, Trew said.

Chris Kolinski with iSask Mortgage Brokers in Saskatoon said it’s important homeowners realize the assessed values only affect how much property taxes they will pay – not the market value of a home.

“(The city) look at generic things like where the house is located and what area, square-footage and size, they just take some generic things that they attach arbitrary number to come up with that value,” Kolinski said.

“For the average homeowner, don’t worry too much about what those say if you’re looking at selling or remortgaging to pull out equity because it doesn’t really reflect how much your place is worth.”

The city has sent out 100,000 reassessment notices to property owners. Anyone looking to appeal a reassessment notice has until March 29 to do so.

Kolinski said homeowners looking to get an appraisal for their home can reach out to a realtor to get a sense of how much their home is worth on the market.

Correction:

A previous version of this story stated the City of Saskatoon will collect less in property tax revenues from 2021 to 2025 after the drop in assessed property values. However, according to the city, reassessment is revenue-neutral. This means that the city does not collect any more, or less, tax revenue due to changes in property values.