Am I the only homeowner in Cochrane who reached for the smelling salts when I received my annual property tax assessment form in the mail a few weeks ago?
Somehow, in this “Granville Island” of southern Alberta, my property value has escalated by almost $97,000 in just two years ($65,500 within the last year alone!) Had I known 8 1/2 years ago that entering the real estate market in Cochrane was going to be such a cash cow, I may have invested in a couple of other equally humble properties, then got out of Dodge and moved to Vancouver! In actuality, I bought at the absolute height of the real estate boom and subsequently watched the price of my home tumble. And tumble.
I set to work researching the town’s assessments of other homes of a similar description in my area and found that, according to the town, the value of most homes had gone up radically, but that mine was assessed as the second most expensive of its type. Granted, my “glimpse of the mountains” has been remarkably enhanced by the CRTC communications tower which now looms large through my living room window, and I guess the additional bonus view of the community garden (crumbling wooden boxes of dirt sans greenery nine months of the year accompanied by the smell of rotting compost when the wind is just right) might be considered a plus in some circles.
I contacted the Town of Cochrane’s Assessment Department and had a nice conversation with a helpful person on the other end of the line. After much backing-and-forthing, she agreed to drop my assessment value by just over $18,000, which still left me with an astonishingly over-inflated price tag on the home. What I couldn’t get, no matter which way I posed the question, was why the tax assessments in this town have skyrocketed when realty prices have, in fact, stayed relatively flat
According to the Town of Cochrane’s 2015 Report to the Community’s 10-year financial strategy called “Bridging the Gap,” council discussed the town’s operating budget gap in the annual strategic planning process, stating, “A gap in the operating budget cannot be sustained as we must ensure annual property tax increases are affordable.”
Just wondering if there’s any relationship between the budget for the new pool and the equally staggering escalation in our real estate (thus taxation) value.
Nah. That would never happen.
Laurie Rossiter, Cochrane
