Short Answer: Not very accurate.
In recent weeks, I’ve been getting notes from former clients. Their City of Edmonton property assessments are coming in – and they’re much higher than they were last year. This isn’t a one-off. The median assessed property value for a detached single family home in Edmonton in 2025 is $465,500 for 2025, up more than $35,000 from last year’s median value of $428,500.
Every year, the City of Edmonton on comes up with a City of Edmonton property assessment, or the value for every property in Edmonton. It is used to estimate your Edmonton property tax. It isn’t easy to estimate the value of that many properties, so many times the price isn’t very close to what the actual market value or selling price would be if the house were put up for sale. (To find out more about your home’s value, see What is Your Home Worth?)
So if the price you get on your property tax assessment isn’t quite the same as your actual market value, how far off is it? Well that totally depends on the property, and I don’t think the increased assessments change that. But I see the property assessment as a very rough guideline for a few reasons:
- It’s not timely. The value is assessed on July 1 of the previous year. Real estate markets can change significantly over the year, which could impact its accuracy.
- City assessors don’t actually look at your home. Maybe you’ve put in fancy hardwood floors, new windows, and a new kitchen. That could definitely boost your home’s value, but you won’t see it reflected in your assessment. City assessors don’t tour your home like a real estate agent or professional appraiser would.
- 5% adds up. The City of Edmonton says they consider a home’s assessed value to be accurate if it falls within 5% of the actual market value. That sounds like small potatoes, but on an average home, that’s more than $20,000!
For example, I recently sold a condo downtown that was assessed at $224,500, but it sold for $261,000 that same year. It sold for 16.3% more than it was assessed at by the City. If the owner had used the assessed value and sold their condo at that price, they could have lost $36,500!
There just isn’t any way a municipality could know the values of all the houses in a city. It’s just not possible. The assessment is meant as a tax assessment based on what the City of Edmonton is estimating from the past year. It is meant to give a reasonable figure to levy taxes, nothing more.
If you want to sell a house in Edmonton, I suggest calling a realtor for a market evaluation, or getting an appraisal done by a professional appraiser to find out a more accurate valuation. Without seeing your home, no one could really know what it is actually worth, but an appraiser or realtor will come to your property and look at things like upgrades and condition to adjust the price accordingly. And if you really want to know the exact value – well you’d have to sell your home on the open market for that.
This article is meant to illustrate the difference between the market value of a home as determined by selling it on the open market versus looking at a tax assessment from the City of Edmonton – it is not meant to suggest you should appeal your assessment to the City of Edmonton in the hopes of reducing your property tax. Also, it is not cool to call a real estate agent for a free market evaluation in the hopes of tax avoidance!
I manage an apartment building. I want to challenge the assessment
You can challenge an assessment – usually this means you must pay a fee to challenge and they will let you know how to present your argument. Good luck!
Does the assessment relate to market value in any way? I live in a townhouse and none of the units have recently sold for anything near what our assessment is this year (over estimated by about 60k). Is there any point to challenging the assessment and base the argument on market value?
Hello Guy. The assessment is a ballpark value only. And sometimes it is not even that. Our assessment on our house is off by $50,000. I do not know if it is worth arguing about. If you think you can use recent sales to convince the City that your value is actually lower, they may lower your taxes. You do have to pay to make an appeal, though. It may be worth it – $60,000 is a lot. Good luck!
I received a higher estimate from a website called http://www.[redacted].ca have Edmonton City Prices really gone up that much in 2014. Im on a corner and the agent explained after the evaluation was sent in email explanation that it had great potential to build a multi unit on the corner maybe a 4 plex. My tax assessment is low but he believed i can get a lot higher. Any ideas if corner lots in Alberta Ave are worth more than normal lots? Thanks Dave R. Pleas no calls I do not want to sell.
Hi Dave, A website cannot tell you how much a house is worth no matter what the people who run it will tell you. You really need to see a house in person to get a good idea of what it is worth and even then, us professionals need to put it on the open market to prove it. These tools might get better over time, but currently it isn’t possible. It can be great for getting a ballpark price or comparing to other properties like yours. Prices have gone up recently and corner lots are more desirable than they used to be because of zoning changes.
The city is using MLS listings of your house and basing the property tax on what you paid for it, plus a certain percentage. Someone said they complained to the city and showed an MLS listing and the city said they didn’t know they had a fireplace and would add this to the next years property tax assessment!
Hi Ramona, Yes, this is a danger. You are not likely to be able to argue that your taxes should be lower, but you might invite scrutiny. Also, you need to pay to complain. It’s not the most fun prospect!