The number on your property tax bill and the number your home would sell for are almost never the same — and they're not supposed to be. After 18 years of fielding "but MPAC says my home is worth..." conversations, here's what each number actually means and how to use both without confusing one for the other.
What MPAC actually is
MPAC is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. It's the agency that assesses every property in Ontario for the purpose of property taxation. Your municipality uses the MPAC value to figure out your share of the local tax bill.
A few things that surprise people:
- It's not your home's market value.
- It's not based on a recent sale price (yours or your neighbours').
- It's not adjusted in real time.
- It's frozen — and has been for years.
It's also not produced by someone walking through your house. It's a mass appraisal, generated by a model that looks at large pools of similar properties.
Why your MPAC value is from 2016
This is the part most people don't know.
MPAC's most recent province-wide reassessment was based on a valuation date of January 1, 2016. The next reassessment was originally scheduled for 2020. Then it was postponed by Bill 218. Then it was postponed again by COVID-related delays. Then it was postponed again.
So as of mid-2026, the valuation date underpinning your MPAC assessment is still January 1, 2016.
That's a decade ago.
What's happened to Brantford prices in that decade:
- 2016 median: roughly $300,000.
- 2022 peak: ~$762,000.
- March 2026: $556,500.
The 2016 base value MPAC is using doesn't reflect any of that. It doesn't reflect the spike, it doesn't reflect the correction, it doesn't reflect the renovations you did in 2019, and it doesn't reflect the new builds and infill that have changed your neighbourhood since.
What market value is
Market value is what a willing buyer pays a willing seller, today, in an arms-length transaction.
It's:
- Determined by recent comparable sales, not by an assessment model.
- Specific to property type, neighbourhood, and condition.
- Adjusts in real time as the market moves.
- Updated continuously by every transaction that closes.
Market value is what matters when you're listing your home, when you're making an offer, and when a lender appraises a property for refinancing. It is, in nearly every important real-life situation, the number you actually want to know.
Why they rarely match
Five reasons MPAC and market value almost never line up:
- Time gap. Ten-plus years out of date is the biggest one. Even if the original assessment was perfect, ten years of price movement isn't reflected.
- Mass appraisal. MPAC values thousands of similar homes at once using statistical models. There's no individualized analysis of your house.
- No condition adjustment for changes since 2016. Renovated your kitchen in 2019? Finished the basement in 2021? Replaced the roof? MPAC doesn't know.
- Mixed comparables in the assessment model. The same issue as online estimators — different property types and conditions get blended together in ways that produce odd numbers.
- Stale market base. 2016 was a different real estate market in Brantford than 2020, 2022, or today.
The Brantford example
Let me make this concrete.
A typical 1,500-sqft three-bedroom detached in Brantford might have an MPAC assessed value of $260,000–$320,000, depending on neighbourhood and 2016 condition.
That same home in 2026 has a market value somewhere between $540,000 and $620,000, depending on current condition, exact location, and segment.
The MPAC number is roughly half the market number. That's not because something is wrong. It's because the MPAC number is a 2016 snapshot, and Brantford prices have done a lot of moving since 2016 — most of it upward, some of it back downward, but on net well above where we were when MPAC last looked.
When MPAC matters
MPAC is the right number to focus on in a few specific situations:
- Property tax appeals. If you think your assessment is unfairly high relative to comparable assessments, you can appeal. The relevant comparison isn't your home's market value — it's other MPAC values for similar homes.
- Estate valuations. Sometimes useful as a baseline; usually paired with an actual market valuation.
- Some niche refinancing situations. Rare. Most lenders want a real appraisal.
For nearly every other situation involving "what is my house worth," MPAC isn't the right tool.
When market value matters
Market value is the relevant number for:
- Selling your home. This is the entire conversation.
- Buying a home. What you should pay vs. the list price is a market-value question.
- Most refinancing. Lenders order an appraisal that's effectively a market-value opinion.
- Insurance, sometimes — though insurance often uses a third number (replacement cost), which is different again.
How to find your real market value
The same answer as everywhere else in this market:
- Pull recent comps for your specific property type and neighbourhood.
- Filter to last 90 days, similar size, similar condition.
- Adjust for upgrades, lot, exposure, and any obvious differences.
- Get a second opinion from someone who's been inside homes in your area recently.
That's the actual math. Not the MPAC number. Not the online estimate. Real comps, current market, similar property.
Three numbers, three uses
To put it simply, you have three numbers floating around for any given home, and they each do a different job:
- MPAC value — used by your municipality to calculate property taxes. Anchored to January 1, 2016. Useful for tax stuff, almost nothing else.
- Market value — used for buying, selling, and most refinancing. Reflects today's market. Determined by recent comparable sales.
- Replacement cost — used by insurance to figure out what it would cost to rebuild your home from scratch. Tied to construction costs, not real estate prices.
The mistake is using one number to answer a question it wasn't designed for. MPAC isn't designed to tell you what your home will sell for. Insurance replacement cost isn't designed to set your list price. Market value isn't designed to calculate your taxes.