Taxation Comparisons with Other Municipalities

The table that follows is taken from the 2019 BMA Management Inc. Municipal Study and compares Windsor's taxes to similar cities across the province for 12 types of properties in the various assessment classes.

The table shows that in 2019 Windsor's property taxes rank below the comparative provincial average in 9 of the 12 assessment classes reported (it is noted that in 2004 only two of Windsor's assessment classes had taxes below the provincial average):

•  Residential property taxes are below average for typical average residential properties, but above average for high value (2,000 sq. ft. two storey & 3,000 sq. ft. senior executive) homes. This is attributable to Windsor's comparatively very low average residential property assessment values (approximately $163,000) that require comparatively higher tax rates. The higher tax rates combined with the higher assessment values at the top end of the housing market result in relatively higher taxes on those properties. In other words, the higher end homes in Windsor, which as an established older municipality has a large stock of smaller homes, are outliers in terms of assessment value to a greater extent than in newer municipalities which have a greater percentage of newer, larger homes and, therefore, the split of the total taxes among the individual properties is more homogeneous.
•  Multi residential property taxes for both walk-up apartments and mid/high-rise apartments rank well below the provincial average.
•  Commercial properties generally rank well below average, except for Motels, which are slightly above the average.
•  Property taxes on industrial properties now rank well below average in all categories.

As a direct result of the fiscally responsible budgets and various tax policy decisions of the last decade, very significant progress has been made in recent years with regards to Windsor's relative rankings.