Lower Property Values Can Still Mean Higher Taxes

Do you think your property taxes will decrease because the assessed value of your property dropped? 

Your taxes could actually increase according to information given at a seminar to more than 20 people by Commissioner Dan Patlak Thursday at the Northfield Community Center. The event was hosted by state 

Patlak also said an appeal of assessed value to the Board of Review will likely lower a tax bill and has a good chance of success. More than half the people appealing the assessed value of residential property are successful. 

Residents of New Trier Township must file an appeal by April 22 while Northfield Township citizens have until May 10. Anyone living in New Trier Township who still wants to file an appeal can get a form at the New Trier or Northfield Township Assessor’s Office and file it at the Board of Review’s branch office at the Skokie Court House, 5600 Old Orchard Road. 

Reversing a long standing trend, assessed property values in Northfield Township dipped 11.3 percent since the last valuation three years ago, according to Township Assessor

“Between 1997 and 2007 there was a 30 percent increase,” Damisch said. “When assessments go down, people are in less of a panic. I’ve never seen a drop like this.”

Damisch and Patlak both urge citizens not to be lulled. Patlak explained the assessed valuation of each individual property helps determine the pro rata share its owner will pay of Cook County’s total property tax revenue. The less the value tempered by exemptions, the less the tax. 

“Each year the pie gets bigger even when property value goes down,” Patlak said, holding his hands in an increasingly expanding circle to demonstrate. “Local governments can only increase their levy (the amount received from taxes) five percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. That’s been about three percent a year.” 

This is how tax revenue increases when value goes down, Patlak explained. “That’s when you say to the taxing bodies ‘find a way to live within our means,’” he said. 

Patlak encouraged people to if they have any inkling their property may be assessed at a higher value than their neighbors. According to Patlak, 51 percent of all residential appeals are successful.

When filing an appeal with the Board of Review, property owners must know the construction style of their home and its size in square footage to make appropriate comparisons with like properties, Patlak explained.

“There are four types of construction; brick, brick and frame, frame and stucco. A building permit will usually tell you that,” Patlak said. “A plat of survey will give you the size. If it one story it’s length times width. If it’s two stories it length times width times two,” he added. More unique designs require measurement. 

Once the style and size of a home are determined, the property owner should determine the assessed value per square foot. That is the best way for the Board of Review to compare value, according to Patlak. 

“If your property is $10 per foot and your neighbors are $8.50 or $9.00, you have a pretty good chance,” Patlak said of the appeal process. 

Assessed value is not the only factor determining the amount of tax a homeowner will pay.reduce valuation and bring the tax bill down, Patlak said. 

A homeowners’ exemption applies to any person living in a house as of January 1 of “the tax year in question,” Patlak explained. A senior exemption or senior freeze applies to persons over 65. 

A homeowner making changes in the title of property (a new loan, a quitclaim deed arising out of a divorce or transfer into a land trust) could cause an exemption to disappear from a tax bill, according to Patlack.

“If you didn’t get it, go home and look at your tax bill,” Patlak said. “You can apply for a certificate of error and get a refund. You can go back three years.”

The process for that relief can begin at the township assessor’s office. 

A senior exemption applies to property owners living in a home who are over 65. Only one spouse must be that age according to Patlak. A senior freeze applies only to people with a household income less than $55,000.