Glen
Senior Member
Property values in Toronto have also gone up faster than pretty much any other jurisdiction in the province as well. If Toronto tax payers were paying property taxes at the same percentage as those in other cities, they would be paying considerably more dollars than homeowners in those other cities with a similar properties. There are now many people in this city living in homes they could no longer afford if they were to buy them today. Some probably could not move simply because they could no longer pay for both the provincial and city land transfer tax.
The point still stands. Both in actual dollars and in percentages, Toronto homeowners have not had the types of increases as elsewhere. Lastman is largley to blame here.
The whole affordability argument is an interesting one. Trying to reconcile the dramatic increases in property values with increasing demand with cries of 'unaffordable' tax burdens is difficult. It would also be interesting to speculate if the above average inflation of Toronto's residential properties would have been as great if the levels of taxes were equivalent to other regions (~20% higher).