British Columbia Assessment Authority data for 2011 show that market value for homes in the city of Vancouver rose more than 12 per cent from the previous assessment, while home values in Richmond shot up more than 17 per cent.

The assessments were made available online today for owners of the 1.9 million properties in B.C.

B.C. Assessment staff began posting data this past weekend.

Notices with expanded information were given to Canada Post on Dec. 31 and will be arriving in the mail this week.

Online users can go to www.bcassessment.bc.ca and click on the box for “e-valueBC” to see the new figure for their own and neighbouring properties. B.C. Assessment’s website will also show the value of sales in the surrounding area in 2010.

For most properties, B.C. Assessment shows the assessed value as of July 1 of the previous year. Their actual value depends on the market at a particular time.

B.C. Assessment appraisers takes into account criteria such as size, age, quality, condition and location of individual properties.

This year’s deadline to appeal assessments is Jan. 31. If you don’t agree with the assessment, B.C. Assessment encourages you to call or visit their office to try to resolve the matter.

The Crown corporation’s office is closed Monday and reopens Tuesday.

While individual property values are now online, regional and provincial statistics and graphs will be coming out on tomorrow. That information will include the total value of the provincial assessment roll, year-over-year changes in assessment values in municipalities, and new construction.

The capital region has more than 140,000 property owners. At this time last year, most homes were valued higher than in the previous year.

In January 2010, the total value of the Greater Victoria assessment roll was $88.16 billion, up from $84.6 billion year-over-year. New construction, subdivisions and rezonings represented $1.3 billion of that increase.

Provincially, the assessment roll reached $969 billion in January 2010.

If a property’s assessment goes up, that does not always mean municipal taxes will increase. What typically makes the difference is if an assessment rises or falls beyond the average.

Landcor Data Corp. of New Westminster predicted last month that Greater Victoria single-family house assessments would increase throughout the region. The company, which analyses B.C. real estate data, expects these assessments to increase by as much as 12.6 per in Sidney, and by 1.3 per cent in Langford.