Windsor taxes aren’t sky high: study

Criticism that Windsor’s property taxes are sky high is contradicted by a recent study that suggests they’re among the cheapest. The study compares the tax rates and average assessed home values in various Ontario municipalities. If you figure out the taxes paid for these homes, Windsor’s taxes end up less than all but one of the cities: Chatham-Kent.

With a tax rate of 1.84 per cent, Windsor has the second-highest tax rate of the nine cities compared in the 2017 survey by BMA Consulting, beaten only by ChathamKent’s 1.89 per cent. To determine your taxes, you take the tax rate and multiply it by the assessed value of your home. And because house prices in Windsor and ChathamKent are much lower than places like Oakville and Mississauga, the actual taxes for similar homes end up being cheaper here. In Windsor, the average residential assessment was valued at $173,613 with taxes of $3,194, while in Oakville the average assessed value was $525,736 with a 0.8 per cent tax rate and taxes of $4,205. The taxes were $4,430 in Mississauga for a $521,191 home, $4,376 in Oshawa for a $295,683 home, $4,060 in Ottawa for a $379,530 home, $4,029 in Hamilton for a $307,575 home, $3,578 in London for a $263,158 home, $3,439 in Kitchener for a $299,063 home and $3,129 in Chatham for a $165,555 home.

The study, part of a recent report to council addressing the city ’s tax policies, dispels the misconception that Windsor has high taxes, said the city’s deputy treasurer Janice Guthrie. “People always look at the tax rate and say ‘Wow, the City of Windsor has the highest taxes in Ontario.’” But that misses half the equation, she said.

The other half is Windsor’s low property values, which when multiplied by Windsor’s high tax rate results in taxes that are significantly lower than most similar municipalities.