1.21%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$6,038 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $503 a month
Lower than 70% of the 283 Ontario municipalities that have filed 2025
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its 2025 rate. Further right is higher. The rest file 2025 later in the year.
Waterloo 1.21%
Middle 1.39%4 more, up to 4.40%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Waterloo
Middle 1.39%4 more, to 4.40%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
Waterloo
Waterloo in short
$6,038 a year on a $500,000 home: $2,056 to Waterloo council, $3,217 to Waterloo Region and $765 to schools.
Up 0.26 points since 2019, or $1,294 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $1,400 a month, home value $750,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
2025 is the newest year Waterloo has filed, so this page uses it.
283 of Ontario’s 386 municipalities have filed 2025 so far, and Waterloo is compared with them.
In 2024, when all of them had filed, Waterloo was lower than 76% at 1.12%.
Who sets the rate
Three bodies set Waterloo's rate: Waterloo council at 0.41%, Waterloo Region at
0.64%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is
53% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.
$2,056$3,217$765
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalWaterloo council
0.41%
$2,056
34%
County or regionWaterloo Region
0.64%
$3,217
53%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
13%
Total
1.21%
$6,038
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 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.26 percentage points, from 0.95% to 1.21%. On a $500,000 home that is $1,294 a year more than in 2019.
20190.95%$4,744
20200.94%$4,683
20210.95%$4,757
20220.99%$4,946
20231.05%$5,259
20241.12%$5,597
2025*1.21%$6,038
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath. *2025 is Waterloo'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 $14,718M to
$16,583M, and the residential levy collected went from $136M
to $200M. 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
0.33%
0.46%
0.16%
0.95%
—
$4,744
2020
0.32%
0.46%
0.15%
0.94%
−0.01 pts
$4,683
2021
0.34%
0.46%
0.15%
0.95%
+0.01 pts
$4,757
2022
0.35%
0.49%
0.15%
0.99%
+0.04 pts
$4,946
2023
0.36%
0.53%
0.15%
1.05%
+0.06 pts
$5,259
2024
0.39%
0.58%
0.15%
1.12%
+0.07 pts
$5,597
2025*
0.41%
0.64%
0.15%
1.21%
+0.09 pts
$6,038
Why are Waterloo property taxes so low?
Waterloo's total rate of 1.21% is 0.19 percentage points below the provincial middle (1.39%), which is not the same as a small bill. A large assessment base — $16.58B here — funds the same services at a lower percentage, so the dollar amount on an expensive house can still be high.
Home values
Homes here are assessed at $307,628 per household, 12% more than the middle ($275,612). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.
Spending
It spends $4,095 per household, about the same as the middle ($4,124). It spends more on water and wastewater (+$346), parks and recreation (+$322) and fire (+$186), and less on roads and bridges (−$559) and running the municipality (−$221).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Water and wastewater+$346
Parks and recreation+$322
Fire+$186
Roads and bridges−$559
Running the municipality−$221
More on why
Who gets the money
Of that rate, 0.58% goes to Waterloo Region and 0.15% to schools; 0.39% is set by Waterloo itself.
Across Ontario
Across the 226 towns inside a county or region, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.72 for home values, 0.45 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in Waterloo
Cost
Waterloo
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$1,400Higher than 91% of 329
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$750,000Higher than 88% of 384
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2025
$6,038Lower than 70% of 283
$6,964
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
24.0%Higher than 92% of 373
14.9%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$94,000Higher than 67% of 377
$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 Waterloo
The 5 places closest to Waterloo on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among towns inside a county or region.
Municipalities that share Waterloo's county or district that have filed 2025. Rates compare most cleanly between places whose assessments sit at similar levels.
Residential is one of 12 classes Waterloo 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
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Industrial
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Large Industrial
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Office Building
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Parking Lot
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Shopping Centre
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.88%
2.94%
Multi-Residential
1.95
0.80%
1.25%
0.15%
2.21%
Pipeline
1.1613
0.48%
0.75%
0.88%
2.10%
New Multi-Residential
1
0.41%
0.64%
0.15%
1.21%
Residential
1
0.41%
0.64%
0.15%
1.21%
Farmland
0.25
0.10%
0.16%
0.04%
0.30%
Managed Forest
0.25
0.10%
0.16%
0.04%
0.30%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Waterloo 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 Waterloo's 2025 total
residential rate with all 283 Ontario municipalities: 197 of the other 282 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 30016, MAH 25103
Limits
These are the figures Waterloo 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.