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2024 filed rates · Central Ontario

St Catharines vs Niagara Falls: property tax compared

St Catharines1.46% $7,318 a year on a $500,000 home

Niagara Falls1.49% $7,469 a year on a $500,000 home

Niagara Falls is +0.03 pts higher: $151 a year more on a $500,000 home.

Where the two sit among Ontario's 414 municipalities

Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. St Catharines is higher than 59%; Niagara Falls is higher than 61%.

St Catharines 1.46%
Niagara Falls 1.49%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
St Catharines
Niagara Falls
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
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  • St Catharines
  • Niagara Falls

St Catharines has the lower property tax rate: 1.46% against Niagara Falls's 1.49% for 2024, a gap of 0.03 percentage points. On a $500,000 assessment that is $7,318 versus $7,469 a year — a difference of $151.

Side by side

Assessed valueSt CatharinesNiagara FallsDifference
$300,000$4,391$4,482$91
$500,000$7,318$7,469$151
$750,000$10,977$11,204$227
$1,000,000$14,636$14,938$302

Assessed value, not market price. Ontario assessments still reference 2016 valuations, and the two places may sit at different distances from current market value — which is why a rate gap is not the same as a bill gap for comparable houses.

Where the difference comes from

Both are towns inside a county or region, both in Niagara Region, so they pay the same county rate of 0.67% and the entire difference comes from their own councils.

PortionSt CatharinesNiagara FallsOn $500,000
Municipal0.64%0.57%$-364
County or region0.67%0.77%$515
Education0.15%0.15%$0
Total1.46%1.49%$151

2019–2024: has the gap widened?

YearSt CatharinesNiagara FallsGap
20191.26%1.16%−0.10 pts
20201.27%1.17%−0.11 pts
20211.29%1.18%−0.11 pts
20221.32%1.22%−0.11 pts
20231.42%1.42%+0.01 pts
20241.46%1.49%+0.03 pts

Which is cheaper, St Catharines or Niagara Falls?

St Catharines, on rate. 1.46% against 1.49% means $151 less per year on a $500,000 assessment. Whether it is cheaper for the same house depends on how each place assesses it, which the rate alone does not tell you.

Sources and method

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
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times the assessed value shown. Gaps between two rates are in percentage points. Both figures are as filed with the province for the tax year shown.
Limits
Reference, not tax advice. An individual bill can include area-specific charges that a municipality-wide rate does not capture.