* It will never cease to amaze me that the people who were most worked up by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios and the Tribune’s property tax assessment series ended up demanding the changes that lead directly to this result, while the folks who most strongly supported Berrios in the primary are receiving the greatest benefit from all the public pressure and his impending departure…
With all residential property reassessments now mailed out in Chicago, homeowners across the city are seeing dramatic changes in the estimated value that will be used to determine their property tax bill next year.
Improved methods of valuing single-family homes, compounded by rapidly shifting housing prices in some areas, have triggered “sticker shock” in affluent or gentrifying neighborhoods like North Center and Logan Square, where the median assessed value of residential properties was boosted by as much as 50 percent and many individual assessments rose even more.
At the same time, a number of areas with less expensive housing — such as Englewood and New City — saw nearly equal declines in the assessor’s median value estimates.
The new assessment methods were developed to address long-standing problems exposed last year by the Tribune, which found that the Cook County assessor’s office under Joseph Berrios tended to overestimate the value of single-family homes in poor or working-class neighborhoods while underestimating the value of homes in wealthier areas. Those problems put a disproportionate share of the county’s property tax burden on less affluent homeowners, whose tax bills often were inflated while others got an undeserved break.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:30 pm:
Good. Seems much fairer
- Juvenal - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:32 pm:
Judging from the map, Tribune subscribers are getting pounded by the changes the paper fought for.
- Amalia - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:35 pm:
think we won’t know if it is fair until the new assessor gets in. since Berrios’ and company have screwed up so much, I have little trust.
- PoliChi - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:37 pm:
I’m curious how many of those who are experiencing sticker shock actually believed that their home was worth its previous assessment. And how many years before people stop automatically appealing either way because that’s just how the game is played.
- Molly Maguire - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:48 pm:
Had to know this was coming. Folks in high prop value suburbs like me will get some big numbers, and we’ll see how the appeal process works this time around. On the positive side, maybe this will finally lead to serious political pressure to do the income/property tax swap that Ralph Martire has been hankering for all these years (although the federal SALT changes make that less palatable.)
- Anonymous - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 12:58 pm:
A favorite pet theory: rich people in Illinois think of themselves as victims because they need to ask the political class for things, which they hate doing.
But of course they’re beneficiaries of the political class, because they largely get what they ask for.
The key to understanding Bruce Rauner.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:05 pm:
And when you couple the impact of this item with the higher taxes brought to us from the Trump-Rauner-Roskam-Davis-LaHood “tax Cut”) via the SALT cap the GOPies will be grateful the election was in November and not May.
- James Knell - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:14 pm:
Nobody should see a 50% increase in their property taxes in one year. If somebody buys low and sells high, they are going to pay capital gains. Renters should also have protections from dramatic one year jumps.
- Andyillini - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:15 pm:
=maybe this will finally lead to serious political pressure to do the income/property tax swap that Ralph Martire has been hankering for all these years (although the federal SALT changes make that less palatable.) =
Why do the SALT changes matter? Both are part of SALT, so waht’s the difference?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:19 pm:
I doubt Rauner hated clouting his daughter into Walter Payton. What good is power if you can’t enjoy wielding it?
- Anon324 - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:30 pm:
A popular tinfoil hat theory is that the Assessor’s office inflated the property values in the affluent areas as a going away present for their having voted for Kaegi.
- DarkDante - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:38 pm:
The only issue with this being a “get what you paid for situation” is that the current fixes to the system affected only residential problems, while leaving the vast problem of commercial valuations to a late administration. Actual homeowner will only know what their bill should truly be once we begin to value commercial property more accurately.
- 3cequ- - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:40 pm:
I can only think this is just the beginning of the many ways the soon-to-be previous assessor’s office has devised to mess with the soon-to-be administration.
- PoliChi - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 1:42 pm:
= a going away present for their having voted for Kaegi. =
It’s a going away present….for Kaegi. Now he gets to avoid blame for most of the assessment increases.
- Paddyrollingstone - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 2:57 pm:
I really get a kick out of all those around me in Evanston who couldn’t wait to get rid of Joe Berrrios (who I saw this week tooling around the Loop in a sweet Caddy with retired legislator plates that said “J.B.”). There is no question our property taxes are going up and no question that Kaegi will make it harder for us to appeal them. Fun.
- formerpro - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 3:40 pm:
People! Fair is fair. That’s why I voted for Kaegi. If my assessment goes up, as long as it meets the statutory standard (10% of fair market value), I’m good. If I’m getting an unfair tax break because my home is appreciating, someone else is getting screwed because their home is depreciating in value and the Assessor didn’t adjust the value. So yes, I’m glad to have Kaegi as the Assessor, and unless you are a selfish *sshole, you should be, too!
- Molly Maguire - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 5:26 pm:
Annonin’ - I can’t figure out what my point was on SALT.
- revvedup - Thursday, Nov 8, 18 @ 10:17 pm:
After years of laughably overvalued South Suburban home “values”, my taxes dropped by 50%. Good to know those in better off areas will be paying proportionately, rather than sticking me with the bill.