EVA Monday: Appraiser Kaegi defends property reassessments
Residential assessments rose 24% in West Town's tax district, West Chicago township. East Village is in regions 51 and 120.
Property assessment notices are out, and increases are substantial. Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi will explain the changes Aug. 2 in EVA's first in-person meeting of 2021.
Kaegi's office will consider complaints till Aug. 23, and homeowners can appeal the assessor's decisions to the county's Board of Review. EVA's discusssion of the process will be led by Greg Nagel, a real estate broker, CPA and former EVA president.
The presentation starts at 7 p.m. at Homestead, the rooftop restaurant at 1924 W. Chicago Ave. Barring technical difficulties, we'll attempt a live stream on Zoom and Facebook.
Residential assessments rose 24% overall since 2018, according to assessor's office data for West Chicago township, which includes East Village. Changes vary for each property, but increases reported informally to EVA range from 40% to 100%.
Property tax bills due to be mailed Aug. 1 are based on 2020 assessments, but will reflect rising tax levies for city and county government, schools, parks and other services. The 2020 tax levy rose 4.4% for city government alone.
Assessments will have winners and losers, though, starting with fall 2022 tax payments. Commercial real estate assessments rose 116% in the 2021 West Chicago reassessment, and are now responsible for 60% of Chicago's property value, vs. 46% in 2018. All things being equal, this will cut homeowners' tax burden. Of course, all things are not equal, including government budgets from year to year and housing values from block to block and property to property.
The assessor’s office began sending Chicago reassessment notices this month. Rogers Park and West Chicago are the first of eight townships to be reappraised this year based on Chicago property sales from 2013 to 2020. West Chicago single-family sales rose 47% during the period, according to the assessor's analysis. Two- to 6-flats rose 43%, and condos only 5%.