The mortgage payment is the small half of owning. The carrying costs are the half people forget, so the engine prices them explicitly rather than folding them into a fudge factor.
The formula
Each is a rate against the home's value, evaluated monthly:
property tax = propertyTaxRate × price at purchase, then grown with inflation
maintenance = maintenanceRate × home value
insurance = insuranceRate × home value
utilities = a flat monthly amount, indexed to inflation
condo fees = a flat monthly amount you enter, indexed to inflation
The defaults, and what kind of number they are
The property tax rate is a published municipal figure: the City of Toronto's total residential rate, 0.767% of assessed value.[1] The 1% maintenance rule[2] and the utilities estimate of $400 a month for a detached house in the Toronto area[3] are convention, not law — widely used rules of thumb, cited to where they come from and labelled as conventions on the Sources page.
PWL's 1% covers maintenance and home insurance together, so All the Numbers' default insurance rate is nil and the rate is there for a quote you have. Statistics Canada found homeowners paid $1,526 a year for home insurance on average in 2023,[4] a dollar amount and not a share of value, so a quote far from it is worth checking.
In each province
A new home starts from the chosen province's figures, each cited on the Sources page.
| Province | Property tax, on its largest city | Elsewhere in the province | Utilities a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | Toronto, 0.7673% | 1.3524%[5] | $400 |
| British Columbia | Vancouver, 0.3364%[6] | 0.6213%[7] | $306[8] |
| Alberta | Calgary, 0.665%[9] | 0.9872%[10] | $559[11] |
| Saskatchewan | Saskatoon, 1.0467%[12] | the city's rate | $439[13] |
| Manitoba | Winnipeg, 1.3215%[14] | the city's rate | $329[15] |
| Quebec | Montréal, 0.7149%[16] | 0.709%[17] | $232[18] |
| Nova Scotia | Halifax, 1.127%[19] | 1.4459%[20] | $420[21] |
| New Brunswick | Moncton, 1.3614%[22] | 1.1619%[23] | $418[24] |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | St. John's, 0.91%[25] | the city's rate | $434[26] |
| Prince Edward Island | Charlottetown, 1.67%[27] | the city's rate | $444[28] |
| Yukon | Whitehorse, 1.097%[29] | 0.89%[30] | $641[31] |
| Northwest Territories | Yellowknife, 0.955%[32] | 0.471%[33] | $848[34] |
| Nunavut | Iqaluit, 1.573%[35] | 0.615%[36] | $495[37] |
Property tax is the city's total rate on the assessed value, before any home owner grant or homeowner credit. Saskatoon taxes 80% of assessed value, which the figure already includes. Montréal's includes the school tax, for a home in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce; Halifax's is the urban rate with provincial and local transit rates; Charlottetown's is after the provincial tax credit; and in Moncton an owner who lives in the home pays no provincial rate. St. John's water and sewer charge is separate and not in its rate. Yellowknife's adds the education mill rate to the municipal one, and Iqaluit's is the 2025 residential rate, which the City says it kept for 2026.
"Elsewhere in the province" is the middle rate of the province's other municipalities, from the province's own table of every municipality's rate, on the same parts as the city's figure; in a territory it is the territory's own rate outside the capital.[38] Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador publish no such table, and Prince Edward Island's could not yet be read in full, so a home there starts at the city's rate, and the plan says it is the city's.[39] The yearly property tax on a listing is the better figure: enter it and it replaces either rate. The plan pays it in the first year and grows it with inflation. It is the seller's bill, so a sale can change it: some provinces reassess at the sale price, and an owner who lives in the home can pay less than one who does not.[40]
Where the utilities figures come from. Outside Ontario they are Statistics Canada's average household spending on water, fuel and electricity for the province (Survey of Household Spending, 2023),[41] multiplied by 1.5033. For the territories it is the same survey's figure for their capital (Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Iqaluit), which Statistics Canada publishes separately. The survey averages every household, apartments and renters included, so the multiplier restates the average for a detached home. It is set so Ontario's average reproduces the $400 used for a Toronto house, and is then applied to every province alike. It is a convention, not a measurement: if you know your own bills, use them. The territories are not in the survey.
The modelling choices worth knowing
A home not yet bought is taxed on its price. A city taxes a home's assessed value, and in Ontario that is still its value on 1 January 2016, usually well below today's price. The plan has only the price for a home it buys, so it uses the price, and the first year's property tax is usually higher than the real bill.[42] For a home you already own, enter the bill instead.
Property tax grows with inflation, not with the home. The rate sets the first year's bill. After that, a reassessment does not raise what a city collects: Ontario's assessor calls it revenue-neutral, and the city adjusts its rates so a home that rose in value at the city's average pays no more because of it. An average bill therefore follows the city's budget. From 2016 to 2021, average residential bills in Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa rose about 12%, a little above inflation of about 10%, while home values rose 50% to 77%. The plan grows the bill with inflation, at 2.5% a year by default.[43][44] A home that rises faster than its city's average, or a city whose budget grows faster than prices, will pay more.
Maintenance and insurance stay a share of the home's value. PWL's figure is a share of what the home is worth, so as the home appreciates, so does its upkeep.[45] Utilities, a dollar amount, grow with inflation.
Condo or strata fees are what you enter, grown with inflation. Enter the monthly fee in today's dollars; the plan grows it with inflation.[46] A building's fees follow its budget and reserve fund, and can rise faster after a special assessment. A lender counts 50% of the fee when it tests whether you can carry the mortgage.[47]
When part of the home is rented out, the property tax, insurance, utilities and maintenance are shared between the household and the suite by the rented share of the floor space; only the rented share reduces the tax on the rent. The home's value, which sets the property tax, is described in home prices over time.