Guide 05
What the assessed value does and does not tell you
Every building page prints an assessed land value and an assessed total value. Both are real figures with a narrow purpose, and neither is what the building is worth.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026
What the figure is for
The assessed value on a building page is the figure the Department of Finance uses to levy property tax. It is produced by the Department for that purpose, on its own timetable, under rules that differ by tax class and that limit how quickly the number is allowed to move. It is not an appraisal, it is not an estimate of market value, and it is not produced for buyers.
The size of the gap, measured here
The clearest way to see how far the assessment sits from the market is to measure it on this site's own data rather than to describe it. Across the 6,636 buildings that have both an assessed total and at least one apartment transfer recorded in the last five years:
| Measure | Median across those buildings |
|---|---|
| Assessed total value per residential unit | $86,082 |
| Median apartment transfer of the last five years | $634,685 |
| The first as a share of the second | 14% |
Those two figures are not measuring the same thing, which is the point. One is an administrative number attached to a whole building and divided by its unit count; the other is what people actually filed when apartments changed hands. Reading either as the other's substitute is the mistake this page exists to prevent.
Exempt value
12,151 of the 27,122 buildings on this site carry an exempt value above zero. Exemptions attach for many reasons, including tax incentive programmes for new construction and rehabilitation, and ownership by an institution. A large exemption tells you the building's tax position is unusual and worth asking about. It does not tell you why.
What it is genuinely useful for
- Comparing two buildings of similar size in the same neighbourhood, where the assessment is produced by the same method for both.
- Seeing whether a building carries an exemption, which is a question to put to the managing agent.
- Understanding the base on which a building's property tax, and therefore a share of the common charges or maintenance, is calculated.
Not a valuation
Nothing on this site is an appraisal or an opinion of value, and no figure here should be used as one. It is a report of what public files contain.
Every figure quoted in this guide is computed from the same compiled data the building pages use, retrieved 2026-09-04. See methodology for the datasets and the exclusions.