This week, Cook County homeowners will receive the second installment of their 2014 property tax bills. I know when mine comes, my husband will start grabbing his heart, feigning a heart attack. Hopefully, we won’t be hit too hard.
There are 29 townships in Cook County, all which have their own assessor. I caught up with Oak Park Township Assessor Ali ElSaffar to get his take on what might happen (so that the emergency room isn’t packed with heart attack victims when the bills come).
“People want to know what’s going on with their bills,” ElSaffar said. “There will always be people upset that have big increases.”
The 1.8 million properties in Cook County are reassessed every three years on a rotating basis among three regions of the county: Chicago, the southern suburbs and the northern suburbs. Last year, southwest suburban Cook County was reassessed from North Avenue to the Will County border, ElSaffar said.
Of that area, all reassessments reflect the value of your home on Jan. 1, 2014, ElSaffar said. I asked him how he thought other areas this newspaper covers would be hit, such as River Forest, Elmwood Park and Franklin Park.
“All except Oak Park had significant declines in median values,” said ElSaffar. “Of the whole group, Oak Park held its valuation except condos. Most of Southwest Cook County had declines.”
While in Chicago increases will be a tad higher (around 2.8 percent) the average Oak Park taxpayer will pay about a 1.6 percent increase, ElSaffar said. For 39 percent of Oak Park’s single family homes and 86 percent of Oak Park condominiums, property taxes have fallen. At the same time, however, 24 percent of single family homeowners have experienced double-digit tax increases, he said.
This wide variation is due to the 2014 reassessment of Oak Park properties, said ElSaffar. The effect of the reassessment is first evident on the tax bills mailed July 1, he said. Payments are due by Aug. 3.
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The basic idea of the complicated property tax system is fairly simple: A property representing 1 percent of a community’s overall property value pays 1 percent of the community’s tax levies, ElSaffar said. Higher-valued properties pay a higher percentage of tax levies, and lower-valued properties pay a lower percentage of the levies, he said.
What can you do if you feel your tax bill is too high? Make sure you have all your exemptions. If you’re eligible for a homeowner, senior citizen or other exemption but didn’t receive one, you can get your bill revised and your township assessor’s office can help. If you’ve received all eligible exemptions, you probably won’t be able to do anything about your current bill, ElSaffar said.
Later this summer, the Cook County Board of Review will accept appeals for next year’s taxes. When those dates are announced, you can schedule an appointment with the assessor’s office for help preparing your appeal.
“Some people will have significant increases,” ElSaffar said. “Those are the people we usually hear from.”
Appeals can be filed online at the Cook County Assessor’s Web site, http://www.cookcountyassessor.com. If an initial appeal is unsuccessful, try the Cook County Board of Review at cookcountyboardofreview.com, and the Property Tax Appeals Board 217-782-6076.
Felicia Dechter is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press. Got a real estate-related story idea? Email [email protected].