What Is My House Worth? BC Assessment, Benchmark Prices and What a Buyer Will Pay

If you own a house in the Fraser Valley, you can find at least four different values for it: the BC Assessment value, a benchmark price, an online estimate and an agent's price range. Some owners also need a fifth, an appraisal. This guide explains what each number measures and which one to use when you plan a sale.

What is the short answer, and which five numbers will you see?

A house has a sale price on one day: the day a buyer and a seller sign a contract for it. Before that day, every number is an estimate, and each estimate was made for its own purpose.

BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), the provincial regulator of real estate, says buyers "will base their offer price primarily on what similar properties in the area have sold for". So the estimate to plan a sale with is the one built from recent sales of homes like yours. That is a real estate agent's price range. The other numbers answer other questions.

Source: FRIVE team summary. Each row is sourced in its section below.

What does your BC Assessment notice tell you?

BC Assessment describes itself as "a provincial Crown corporation that classifies and values all real property in British Columbia". A Crown corporation is a public body set up by a government. Each year it decides your property's market value, its class and any tax exemptions. That decision is the assessment.

What is the assessed value used for?

BC Assessment says the assessment is the basis that taxing authorities, such as your city, use to decide the share of property tax each owner pays.

BC Assessment says your tax bill depends mainly on how your assessed value changed compared with the average change for the Residential property class in your city. In its example, a home's value rises 20% while the class average rises 30%, and that owner will likely see a decrease in property tax. The example assumes stable tax rates.

The Province also uses the assessed value in two programs for older owners. Our post on property tax deferment and the seniors grant explains both.

Which dates does the notice describe?

The notice describes two past dates. BC Assessment names both on its page about the assessment process:

• July 1 is the valuation date. The assessed value is the market value on that day.
• October 31 is the date for physical condition and permitted use. The assessment reflects the buildings, and the zoning, as they were on that day. Zoning is the city's rule for what may be built on a lot.

Notices are mailed on December 31 and reach owners in early January.

Take the notice that arrives in January 2027. It gives the market value on July 1, 2026. Suppose you accept an offer on April 1, 2027. From July 1, 2026 to January 1, 2027 is 6 months, and from January 1 to April 1, 2027 is 3 months. The value is 9 months old on the day you sell.

The 2026 notice is older. It gives the value on July 1, 2025. Six months pass to January 1, 2026, and 9 more to October 1, 2026: 15 months.

Prices moved in those months. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) reported a benchmark price of $1,300,000 for a single-family detached house in September 2026, down 8.8% from $1,425,800 in September 2025. A detached house shares no walls with another home, and the next section explains benchmark prices. The board's release for July 2025, the month of the valuation date, gave $1,451,100 for the same benchmark.

A 2026 notice describes the market before that fall, so it can show a higher value than buyers pay in the autumn of 2026. The gap for your own house can be larger or smaller, and recent sales near you are the way to measure it.

BC Assessment gives the same reason. It says its value may differ from a bank's or a private appraiser's "because BC Assessment's appraisal reflects the value as of July 1 of the previous year, while a private appraisal can be done at any time".

The records are a second reason. BC Assessment says it collects information most often when a property is built. In our view, later work done without a permit, and the condition of the rooms inside, can be missing from its records.

How do you check the assessment against sales?

BC Assessment's website, bcassessment.ca, has a tool called Assessment Search. You enter your address, and BC Assessment says you can "compare your property with recent sales and assessments of similar properties in your neighbourhood".

Its guidance for owners says to look at similar properties that sold near July 1: a similar location, lot size, number of storeys, quality of construction, building area and age. It says three similar sales are generally enough.

This check tells you whether the assessed value was right for July 1, which matters for your tax. To plan a sale, you need the sales from the most recent months.

How do you ask for a review?

BC Assessment asks owners to contact its staff first, and says many concerns are resolved that way. The formal step is a written complaint to the Property Assessment Review Panel. BC Assessment gives the deadline as January 31 of each year. For 2026 notices it was February 2, 2026, because January 31 was on a weekend.

January 31, 2027 is a Sunday. BC Assessment had not posted the 2027 deadline when we read its site on October 10, 2026, so read the date printed on your notice.

If your children are buying a home, our post on assessed value and market value for buyers covers their side.

What is a benchmark price, and how close is it to your house?

A real estate board is the association of real estate agents for a region. Its agents post homes for sale on the board's Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Each month the board publishes a benchmark price for each type of home in each of its areas.

The benchmark comes from the MLS Home Price Index. The Canadian Real Estate Association says the index uses more than 15 years of MLS System data "to define a 'typical' home based on the features of homes that have been bought and sold". Greater Vancouver REALTORS defines a benchmark price as the "Estimated sale price of a benchmark property". In plain words, it is the estimated price of a typical house for an area.

Here are the benchmark prices for a detached house in the six cities we cover.

Source: FVREB and Greater Vancouver REALTORS packages for September 2026, and Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board figures for August 2026, the latest month posted. Surrey is the board's combined figure for the City of Surrey. Chilliwack is that board's single-family benchmark.

We use a benchmark for one purpose: to see whether prices in a city are rising or falling. Your own house differs from the typical one. In our view, five differences move a price above or below the benchmark: the size and shape of the lot, the condition of the house, a suite (a second living unit with its own kitchen), the view, and the street. Our post on legal and unauthorized suites explains why the type of suite matters.

Is your lot worth more than your house?

BC Assessment says your notice gives separate values for land and buildings. On an older house, compare the two.

A provincial rule changed what may be built on many lots. In zones that were limited to single-family houses or duplexes, the Province says local zoning must allow a minimum of 3 housing units on lots of 280 square metres or smaller, and 4 units on larger lots. Six units must be allowed on lots larger than 280 square metres near frequent bus service. The rule covers municipalities with more than 5,000 people, and some exemptions apply.

Where the rule applies, a builder may pay for the lot and give little value to the house. Our post on selling a house to a builder explains how to check your own lot.

Can you trust an online estimate?

Some websites show a value for any address in seconds. We have tested none of these tools, so we name no company and give no accuracy figure. This section is the FRIVE team's general explanation.

Such a tool is a computer program. It works from records: past sale prices in the area, and recorded facts about each house such as its size, age and lot. The inside of your house is unknown to it: the kitchen and bathrooms, the age of the roof and furnace, a repair that is needed.

So we treat an online figure as a first estimate to check. In our view it is most useful for a house that matches the houses around it. If two websites give two figures for your address, the difference shows how uncertain each one is.

What is an agent's price range built from?

A price range is an agent's opinion of what your house would sell for now, given as a low figure and a high figure. BCFSA describes the method. An agent "can use statistical data to show you what similar properties have recently sold for in your neighbourhood". That value can then be adjusted for closeness to amenities, such as schools and shops, and for upgrades the other properties lack.

In our view, a careful range uses three kinds of information:

1. Recent sales of similar homes near you.
2. The homes for sale now that a buyer would compare with yours. FVREB counted 3,261 detached houses for sale in its area in September 2026, and 337 detached sales that month.
3. The condition of your house, seen in person.

Ask to see how the number was made: the list of sales used, with each address, price and sale date, and the adjustment made for each difference between that home and yours.

Each adjustment is a judgment, so two careful agents can reach different figures from the same sales. In our opinion, that is why a careful agent gives a range and shows the sales used.

In its advice on quick sales, BCFSA suggests that before you list, you interview several licensed real estate professionals and ask each one "to compare your home to similar listings and recent sales on the market and to advise you on a selling price". The opinions can differ. Ask each agent to show the sales used, and compare the sales as well as the figures.

BCFSA also says BC has no standard commission. Commission is the fee a seller pays to the agent's brokerage, the company the agent works for, and the amount can be negotiated. Our page on REALTOR® commission in BC explains more. Once you have a range, BCFSA suggests asking the agent for an estimate of the cash you would receive when the sale completes, based on the asking price and any mortgage on the house.

When do you need an appraisal?

An appraisal is a written opinion of value from a trained appraiser. The Appraisal Institute of Canada is a professional association of appraisers, and this section gives its own description of its members' work. It grants two designations. The one for homes is the Canadian Residential Appraiser, which the Institute says is qualified for dwellings with no more than four self-contained housing units.

The Institute lists the reasons a property owner hires an appraiser. Five apply to downsizers: choosing an asking price, planning an estate (the property a person leaves at death), a court case in which property is divided, such as a separation, capital gains (the tax term for the rise in a property's value between two dates), and an appeal of a property tax assessment.

The capital gains case can need a value on a past date. The Canada Revenue Agency says that when you change the use of a property, for example from your home to a rental, you are "considered to have sold the property at its fair market value". Our post on tax when you sell your home explains the rule. Ask your accountant what record of that value to keep.

Who orders the report matters. The Institute says that when a report is completed for a mortgage, the homeowner is often required to pay the fee, and the appraiser's client is the lending institution. The appraiser needs the lender's written authorization to release the report to anyone else, including the person who paid. If you order an appraisal yourself, you are the client. The Institute says the fee is generally a flat fee that does not depend on the value of the property.

In our opinion, an owner planning an ordinary sale can choose an asking price from an agent's range with the sales shown. We suggest an appraisal when another party, such as a court or an accountant, needs an independent written value.

How do you use the number once you have it?

Plan with the low end of the range. That is our suggestion, because a plan that works at the low figure also works at the high one.

• Money. Enter the low figure in the downsizing calculator with the price of the home you want. It shows the money left after selling costs, buying costs and moving.
• Order. An estimate can be wrong, which is one reason we suggest that most owners sell first.
• Dates. A range describes the market in the week it was prepared. If months pass before you list, ask for a new one. Our post on how long it takes to sell a house in the Fraser Valley adds up the stages.
• Place. Compare your range with prices in the city you want: Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission or Maple Ridge.

The downsizing checklist puts every step in order.

This guide is general information about published rules and market figures. It cannot replace advice about your own house, tax return or legal situation. Confirm tax questions with your own accountant, and legal questions with your own lawyer or notary, before you sign.

Next step

Start with a price range built from recent sales of homes like yours. Ask us for a free home value: send the address, and a BC-licensed REALTOR® emails you a range. That first range comes from sales records, and a visit lets the agent adjust it for the condition of your house. Then enter the low figure in the downsizing calculator. You do not have to sell with us. The rest of our downsizing guide covers tax, the monthly fees in condo and townhouse complexes, and six Fraser Valley cities.