Chicago and Cook County Property Taxes Archives

Do You Own What the Appraiser’s Office Thinks You Own?

In Cook County, the Assessor’s office oversees more than 1.3 million residential parcels, divided into three assessment districts. One of those districts is re-assessed every year using a computer-assisted mass appraisal method. How Mass Appraisal Works Computer-assisted mass appraisal works […]

If You Live in One of These Areas, Your Taxes Are About to Skyrocket

Single-family homeowners on the North Side and central portion of Chicago are about to see their property taxes skyrocket, with some seeing increases of more than 11 percent. When Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough released her final calculations on new […]

Income Reporting: Making the Assessment More Accurate?

What should be good news—that, according to the Association of Foreign Real Estate Professionals survey this year, 71 percent of respondents said they wanted to increase their investment in commercial real estate in the United States—was actually bad news for […]

Property Tax Assessments Soar in Evanston

Property owners in Evanston and the northern Cook County suburbs will be the first to feel the impact of the revised assessment process from new Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. Commercial property owners are bracing themselves for a large increase […]

Make Sure You’re Getting Your Cook County Property Tax Breaks

Cook County homeowners often miss some of the property tax breaks for which their properties qualify and end up paying more money than they need on their property taxes. Property Tax Exemptions Can Help In addition to appealing the appraised […]

Assessor Kaegi Completes Two Township Reassessments, and the Results are Large Assessment Increases for the Taxpayer

Assessor Kaegi was recently elected with a mandate from Cook County voters to “reform” the property tax assessment system. He campaigned on enacting massive changes to the methods of reassessment, and to the entire tax system. He spoke about assessment […]

Just When You Thought Cook County Property Taxes Couldn’t Go Any Higher

The amount of property taxes within Cook County remains a moving target as various government entities pile on the percentages to fill its coffers. As the saying goes: “Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.” Illinois Property Taxes […]

Seniors in Cook County May Be Able to Slash Their Property Tax Bills

As many as 31,000 senior citizens in Cook County may be eligible for the Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption and as many as 21,000 senior citizens may qualify for the Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze Exemption. Available Tax Exemptions Property tax exemptions […]

You Don’t Have to Remove Your Toilets to get Property Tax Relief in Cook County

Instead of removing appliances to make a home seem uninhabitable, there are legal ways to lower a property’s assessment which may, in turn, reduce taxes. During the campaign season, much has been made of the alleged scandal involving our Goveneror […]

The Tax Burden Is Shifting: Accuracy Is More Important than Ever

The unintended consequences of the trio of property tax breaks pushed through by state lawmakers in 2017 are now getting felt by South suburban Chicago. These tax breaks were supposed to ease the burden, especially on senior citizens, of Chicago […]