The Town of Bonnyville saw an eight per cent decrease in their overall assessment results.
Delegates from Accurate Assessment Group Ltd. presented the 2017 report to council during their regular meeting on Tuesday, April 10.
“I’m not surprised that the assessment did go down,” expressed Mayor Gene Sobolewski. “It’s the same stories the realtors are saying in terms of house values and commercial values.”
Bob Daudelin, assessor at Accurate Assessment Group, presented the statistics and a break-down of the results for the town.
The assessment is based on the residential, non-residential, linear, farmland, and exempt properties.
Residential properties have shown a downward trend since 2014. The latest results puts the town’s overall assessment below that of 2013.
Non-residential followed a similar trend, sitting at the lowest point that it has in five years. However, Sobolewski noted the change from 2016 wasn’t as substantial as they’ve seen in the past.
“I’m glad to see that the drop wasn’t as drastic as previous years,” said Sobolewski.
The assessment revealed that 90 per cent of properties in town decreased by anywhere from one to 25 per cent. Just under 46 per cent of properties saw a drop of between $25,000 and $99,999.
When it comes to development permits, the town saw a slight increase over the prior year, with 164 in 2017. The highest point in the past five years came in 2014, when there were 222 development permits.
When looking at the value of land itself, residential land decreased between zero and five per cent and commercial had a 14 to 16 per cent drop. The biggest hit was to industrial land, which plummeted by 30 per cent.
It wasn’t all bad news though. The new residential growth assessment turned out to be better in 2017 than in 2016, with new construction sitting at $2.2 million.
The new non-residential growth assessment was a different story. New construction for 2017 was in the red, at negative $3.2 million.
Daudelin explained, “Negative factor is due to deterioration of buildings, that’s because it’s not market induced.”
He added, “It could also be a change from taxable to exempt, that’s negative growth.”
Overall, comparing 2016 to 2017, the Town of Bonnyville’s assessment differed by just over $100 million less. The total assessment now sits at approximately $1.2 billion.
When council queried about how the town compares to similar Alberta communities, Daudelin noted he’s seeing a parallel happening in other rural areas but that Bonnyville’s is exaggerated due to decline in the oil industry.
A prediction was laid on the table at the end of the presentation stating that from July 1, 2017 until March 2018, there was a decline of five per cent in the residential market. Council was told to expect a four to five per cent decrease in the residential market for this year’s assessment.
“We still have three more months to go for the evaluation date again on July 1, 2018,” explained Daudelin. “I would guess five per cent would be a healthy number.”
