Town in Northeast Ontario, with no county above it
Cobalt property tax rate, 2025
2.05%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$10,263 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $855 a month
Higher than 91% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
Cobalt 2.05%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Cobalt
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
Cobalt
Cobalt in short
$10,263 a year on a $500,000 home: $9,498 to Cobalt council and $765 to schools.
Up 0.60 points since 2019, or $3,001 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $800 a month, home value $131,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
2025 is the newest year Cobalt has filed. Every municipality on this site is compared at its
newest filed rate: 283 have filed 2025, and the other 131 are at their newest year, mostly 2024.
Who sets the rate
Two bodies set Cobalt's rate: Cobalt council and the Province of Ontario, for schools. Cobalt has no
county above it, so there is no county or region portion: its own rate of 1.90%
already pays for services that a county would run elsewhere. That is also why comparing Cobalt's
municipal rate directly against a township's understates what the township actually pays.
$9,498
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalCobalt council
1.90%
$9,498
93%
County or regionNone in Cobalt
0.00%
$0
0%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
7%
Total
2.05%
$10,263
100%
Each rate is rounded to two decimals, so the parts can add up to 0.01 off the total.
How the rate has changed, 2019–2025
Up every year since 2019. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.60 percentage points, from 1.45% to 2.05%. On a $500,000 home that is $3,001 a year more than in 2019.
20191.45%$7,261
20201.46%$7,296
20211.50%$7,492
20221.53%$7,643
20231.69%$8,468
20241.93%$9,627
2025*2.05%$10,263
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath. *2025 is Cobalt's own filing; 104 municipalities have not filed 2025 yet.Each part of the rate, year by year
Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $37M to
$38M, and the residential levy collected went from $1M
to $1M. A rate rising while the base also grows means the budget grew faster than
property values; a rate falling while the base grows usually means the opposite. Assessment is the figure on the
MPAC notice, still based on 2016 values province-wide.
Year
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Change
On $500,000
2019
1.29%
—
0.16%
1.45%
—
$7,261
2020
1.31%
—
0.15%
1.46%
+0.01 pts
$7,296
2021
1.35%
—
0.15%
1.50%
+0.04 pts
$7,492
2022
1.38%
—
0.15%
1.53%
+0.03 pts
$7,643
2023
1.54%
—
0.15%
1.69%
+0.17 pts
$8,468
2024
1.77%
—
0.15%
1.93%
+0.23 pts
$9,627
2025*
1.90%
—
0.15%
2.05%
+0.13 pts
$10,263
Why are Cobalt property taxes so high?
Cobalt's total rate of 2.05% is 0.65 percentage points above the provincial middle (1.40%). A rate that high usually means the assessment base is small relative to what the budget must cover: $38.3M of taxable residential value funds $787K in levy here.
Home values
Homes here are assessed at $70,700 per household, 61% less than the middle ($183,474). Lower values mean it needs a higher rate to raise the same money.
Spending
It spends $7,756 per household, about the same as the middle ($7,558). It spends more on water and wastewater (+$1,105), running the municipality (+$669) and police (+$400), and less on parks and recreation (−$382) and social and family services (−$200).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Water and wastewater+$1,105
Running the municipality+$669
Police+$400
Parks and recreation−$382
Social and family services−$200
More on why
Across Ontario
Across the 167 places with no county above them, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.82 for home values, 0.53 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in Cobalt
Cost
Cobalt
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$800Lower than 78% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$131,000Lower than 95% of 412
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2025
$10,263Higher than 91% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
13.3%Lower than 61% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$56,000Lower than 98% of 405
$84,000
Ontario has no official cost-of-living index for single towns. Statistics Canada’s consumer price index covers only Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay here, and it measures change over time, not the gap between places. These are the costs published for each municipality: what renters paid and owners estimated in the 2021 Census, not today’s asking rents or sale prices.
Places like Cobalt
The 5 places closest to Cobalt on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among places with no county above them.
Residential is one of 5 classes Cobalt reported this year. The tax ratio is the multiple
applied to the residential rate: a ratio of 1.7 on multi-residential means an apartment building pays 1.7×
what a house pays on the same assessed value.
Class
Tax ratio
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Commercial
1.85
3.51%
—
0.88%
4.39%
Industrial
1.85
3.51%
—
0.88%
4.39%
Pipeline
1.4194
2.70%
—
0.88%
3.58%
Multi-Residential
1.7968
3.41%
—
0.15%
3.57%
Residential
1
1.90%
—
0.15%
2.05%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Cobalt files with the Province of Ontario; population, rents and home values from Statistics Canada.
Every source, the method and the limits
Tax rates
Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 22 GPL — Municipal and School Board Taxation. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Act s.294(1). Years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; retrieved 2026-10-11.
Download the file
Spending, households
Financial Information Return Schedule 40 (consolidated expenses by function) and Schedule 02 (households and population).
Population
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0155-01, Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rent, home value, income
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence. Rent is the median monthly shelter cost of renter households (rent plus any utilities they pay).
The Ontario middle is the median across the municipalities with a published figure.
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times $500,000 of assessed value. Standing compares Cobalt's 2025 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 39 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 54008, MAH 90402
Limits
These are the figures Cobalt filed with the province. An individual bill can include area-specific charges and
local improvement levies that a municipality-wide rate does not capture. Reference, not tax advice.