Yeah, absolutely it's a "generous" evaluation because they can charge us more taxes. This is Canada! That's what we do here!
We bought our house in 04 for 230K and the evaluation came in at 317K - sorry, when I said it had increased 56K that was from the 05 evaluation which pegged it at 261K, not from when we bought it. Realistically, we could sell it now for maybe $280-$300K, but then we'd still have to buy another house, and real estate here hasn't been like it has in the US - it's risen a lot over the last few years, but we didn't have any of the mortgage practices you guys did, so it's much more true-market driven. Hamilton has seen some of the highest increases in the country over the last 3 years, though things are leveling off a bit. But there's no forecasted decrease or bubble bursting. There's no reason to believe that housing prices around here will fall, at least not any more than standard market fluctuations, with the added hit of a recession.
I wish I could say we were smart, but we were just lucky! We bought in an area that took off, just a few years before it took off.
Things aren't as bad in Canada as they are in the US, but our markets are taking a hit - the Toronto Stock Exchange was down 800 points on Wednesday, rebounded some 400 yesterday and is down again today. I just read that the total loss on the week for the TSX was 10.9%. Expectations are for somewhat of a recession but the question is how much. It all depends on who you listen to - we're also in the midst of a federal election campaign (we vote on Oct. 14) so partisan rhetoric and spin are flying fast, and you never know who you can trust, if anyone.