Stratford property tax rate 2023

Stratford in short

$7,528 a year on a $500,000 home: $6,763 to Stratford council and $765 to schools.
Up 0.14 points since 2019, or $710 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $1,080 a month, home value $500,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.

Stratford has not filed 2025 with the province yet, so this page uses 2023, the newest year it has filed. Every municipality is compared at its newest filed rate: 283 of the 414 have filed 2025.

Who sets the rate

Two bodies set Stratford's rate: Stratford council and the Province of Ontario, for schools. Stratford has no county above it, so there is no county or region portion: its own rate of 1.35% already pays for services that a county would run elsewhere. That is also why comparing Stratford's municipal rate directly against a township's understates what the township actually pays.

$6,763$765

Portion	Rate	On $500,000	Share
MunicipalStratford council	1.35%	$6,763	90%
County or regionNone in Stratford	0.00%	$0	0%
EducationProvince of Ontario	0.15%	$765	10%
Total	1.51%	$7,528	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, 2019–2023

Up every year since 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.14 percentage points, from 1.36% to 1.51%. On a $500,000 home that is $710 a year more than in 2019.

20191.36%$6,818
20201.35%$6,754
20211.37%$6,837
20221.44%$7,177
20231.51%$7,528

Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath.

Each part of the rate, year by year

Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $3,306M to $3,521M, and the residential levy collected went from $44M to $53M. 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	1.20%	—	0.16%	1.36%	—	$6,818
2020	1.20%	—	0.15%	1.35%	−0.01 pts	$6,754
2021	1.21%	—	0.15%	1.37%	+0.02 pts	$6,837
2022	1.28%	—	0.15%	1.44%	+0.07 pts	$7,177
2023	1.35%	—	0.15%	1.51%	+0.07 pts	$7,528

Why are Stratford property taxes so high?

They are not, measured against the rest of the province. Stratford's total rate of 1.51% sits close to the Ontario middle of 1.40%: higher than 62% of 414 municipalities. A bill can still feel high when the assessment is high, because the rate is only half of the calculation.

Home values

Homes here are assessed at $220,986 per household, 20% more than the middle ($183,474). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.

Spending

It spends $9,381 per household, 24% more than the middle ($7,558). It spends more on social and family services (+$1,668), social housing (+$792) and police (+$569), and less on roads and bridges (−$708) and water and wastewater (−$561).

← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Social and family services+$1,668
Social housing+$792
Police+$569
Roads and bridges−$708
Water and wastewater−$561

What it costs to live in Stratford

Cost	Stratford	Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021	$1,080Higher than 69% of 354	$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021	$500,000Higher than 60% of 412	$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2023	$7,528Higher than 62% of 414	$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021	19.9%Higher than 78% of 400	15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020	$77,000Lower than 65% 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 Stratford

The 5 places closest to Stratford on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among places with no county above them.

Place	Newest rate	On $500,000
Greater Sudbury	1.46%	$7,287
St Marys2023 rate	1.46%	$7,311
Stratford this page	1.51%	$7,528
Norfolk County	1.57%	$7,869
Kenora	1.62%	$8,077
Parry Sound2024 rate	1.72%	$8,621

Others in Perth County

Municipalities that share Stratford's county or district. Rates compare most cleanly between places whose assessments sit at similar levels.

Municipality	Rate	On $500,000	vs Stratford
Perth East	0.98%	$4,900	−$2,628
Perth South	1.04%	$5,177	−$2,351
West Perth	1.26%	$6,301	−$1,227
North Perth	1.41%	$7,047	−$481
St Marys2023 rate	1.46%	$7,311	−$217

All 414 Ontario municipalities in one table

More on Stratford

All 11 property classes, 2023

Residential is one of 11 classes Stratford 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
Industrial	2.542033	3.44%	—	0.88%	4.32%
Large Industrial	2.542033	3.44%	—	0.88%	4.32%
Commercial	1.975937	2.67%	—	0.88%	3.55%
Office Building	1.975937	2.67%	—	0.88%	3.55%
Parking Lot	1.975937	2.67%	—	0.88%	3.55%
Shopping Centre	1.975937	2.67%	—	0.88%	3.55%
Pipeline	1.509	2.04%	—	0.88%	2.92%
Multi-Residential	2	2.71%	—	0.15%	2.86%
New Multi-Residential	1	1.35%	—	0.15%	1.51%
Residential	1	1.35%	—	0.15%	1.51%
Farmland	0.25	0.34%	—	0.04%	0.38%

Sources and method

Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Stratford 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; 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 Stratford's 2023 total residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 159 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID: MunID 31011, MAH 65101
Limits: These are the figures Stratford 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.

Stratford property tax rate, 2023

Higher than 62% of the 414 Ontario municipalities