Providing Property Tax Relief Since 1999
The Cook County Assessor’s Office has announced that triennial reassessment notices were mailed on February 2, 2017, for River Forest Township. The deadline to appeal your assessment at the Cook County Assessor’s Office is March 7, 2017.
River Forest Township is one of seventeen townships in the south suburban group which will be reassessed in 2017. Valuation statistics for River Forest Township can be found here.
Riverside Township assessment notices for 2018 have been mailed. The 30 day window to appeal your assessed value at the Assessor’s office is now open through the deadline of March 2nd.
You may appeal your assessment each year, regardless of when your township was last re-assessed (Riverside was re-assessed in 2017). In fact, it is our opinion that you should at least review, if not appeal, your assessment annually due to regular changes in the housing market (others have also made this recommendation).
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The Cook County Assessor’s Office has announced that 2015 assessment notices were mailed on January 30, 2015, for the following townships:
The deadline to file an appeal is March 3, 2015.
The Cook County Assessor’s Office has announced that 2016 assessment notices were mailed on January 29, 2016, for the following townships:
The deadline to file an appeal is February 29, 2016.
A mayoral candidate’s idea for a tiered system of property tax rates that would tax higher-priced homes at higher rates was short-lived.
Another idea to establish a statewide property tax to help pay off pension obligations was decisively rejected by suburban voters in November before it was ever even formally proposed. The referendum was seen as a way to discourage any attempts to introduce such a proposal – based on an idea from three Federal Reserve of Chicago economists reported earlier this year.
The chilly reception in both cases illustrates the hurdles around proposals that have the potential to raise property tax rates, especially in an election year, and especially in areas like Chicago, where property owners are still absorbing the sting of four years of phased-in property tax hikes.
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Applications for two property tax exemptions for Cook County senior citizens have been mailed out to property owners who received the exemptions last year. The deadline for re-applying for the exemption is Feb. 6, 2019. The application is required every year, regardless of past eligibility.
The Senior Citizen Exemption entitles eligible property owners to an $8,000 reduction in the equalized assessed value of their property, reducing their tax bills for tax year 2018 by lowering the value of their property that is used to calculate the amount of taxes owed.
To be eligible for the Senior Exemption, a Cook County taxpayer must meet the following criteria:
Cook County Tax Assessor Fritz Kaegi backed off a plan to provide immediate relief to more than 1,100 homeowners living within a floodplain in the New Trier township after a rocky roll-out left him having to defend a decision that would have reduced the assessed value of some pricey homes by as much as 30%.
But floodplain data, compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been added to the county’s assessment models and will be a factor taken into consideration going forward.
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Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has not given up on efforts to pass legislation requiring some commercial property owners to submit information about building income to the assessor’s office, which he has called “the first, best step in legislative tax reform.”
The so-called Data Modernization Bill passed the Illinois Senate earlier this year, but was shelved by a House committee amid opposition from groups that include the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, among others. Opponents say the bill would impose burdensome reporting requirements and includes information that is confidential.
Faced with a pension crisis and a budget shortfall of $838 million next year, Chicago’s mayor says additional property tax increases cannot be ruled out.
In comments made as part of her state of the city speech and more recently at a conference for municipal bond investors, Mayor Lori Lightfoot made it clear that other proposals for closing the gap, including the refinancing of some high-cost debt, may not be enough to avoid having to go back to property owners for the revenue that will be needed to meet the city’s pension obligations and other budget needs.
The gap, a third of which is attributed to pension costs, is the result of the city’s long-term failure to meet pension obligations and fix the structural problems that have caused the crisis, Lightfoot said.
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2019 Triennial reassessment notices were mailed to Hanover Township homeowners on Tuesday, September 24th. The following cities, towns, and villages are in Hanover Township: Bartlett, Elgin, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg (west edge), South Barrington (south edge), and Streamwood. Homeowners in Hanover Township have 30 days to appeal their assessment at the Assessor’s office (there will be a second opportunity to appeal later in the year at the Board of Review, whether you appeal at the Assessor’s office or not). The deadline for appealing at the Assessor’s office is October 24th.
Valuation statistics for Hanover Township will be published by the Cook County Assessor’s office here when they become available. We recommend homeowners review their assessment annually, particularly in a triennial reassessment year, to ensure they do not pay more than their fair share in property taxes. Successfully appealing in a reassessment year may provide 3 years of savings on future property tax bills. If you would like a free analysis of your Hanover Township home, in comparison to similar properties, we would be happy to conduct a “no obligation” analysis and provide you with a free estimate of how much we believe we could help you save with an appeal.
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