• The Property Assessment process in New Brunswick
• Understanding how property assessment factors into your tax bill
• What is market value and why are assessments based on it?
• Comparing your assessment to other properties
• New Brunswick real estate sale prices now available (from January 1, 2009)
• Questioning your assessment?
• Why assessments in New Brunswick were still rising on January 1, 2009
• Service New Brunswick improves the Appeal Process
• Contacting Service New Brunswick

What is market value and why are assessments based on it?

Market value is the most probable price that a property would sell for on the open real estate market at a given point in time - January 1 of each tax year. It is the predominant method of assessment in more than 125 countries around the world.

The market value of a property is used to establish the assessment because it is an understandable method (real estate prices are published every day in the paper) and it is considered the most equitable and realistic measure of a property's worth. Real estate asking prices are public knowledge, and this transparency helps promote fairness.

Assessors in New Brunswick review and measure each localized real estate market to establish typical market values. Put another way, assessors aren't actually determining market value; they are reflecting the values that have been established by buyers and sellers in local real estate markets.

Factors that affect market value could include:

• property location (including nearness to green spaces, community services, and access)
• total finished floor area of a home
• lot size
• basement or lower level of home development (finished floor, walls and ceiling)
• quality of construction - materials and labour
• age of building and abnormal depreciation
• existence and type of garage
• traffic influences or neighbourhood characteristics and in the case of income producing properties, the income generated by that property