Our real estate tax team at Rock Fusco & Connelly, LLC continues to work hard fighting to keep your property tax bills as low as possible. Below are key updates on the 2021 and 2022 sessions.
Cook County: 2021: Second installment bills are finally out for 2021. You can view them online (https://bit.ly/3EymH8V). We are recommending to our clients who reside in Cook County to pay your second installment property tax bills by Dec. 30, 2022 at the very latest to make sure you can utilize your full State And Local Tax (SALT) deduction (up to $10,000) for the 2022 calendar year.
Now that the new tax rates were released for 2021 installments, clients will be receiving our invoices for 2021 work as well. You can expect our bills in the mail in the coming weeks.
Having just finished the City of Chicago triennial, 2021 values typically would hold for 2022 and 2023 until the city is reassessed again in 2024. As noted in the Chicago Tribune, however, the Assessor, “plans to re-set values on some Chicago commercial properties this year to bring them closer to his original assessments. That’s a break from the past: Typically, the assessor values properties in the county once every three years, but Kaegi has decided to make an exception in Chicago in response to the Board of Review’s reductions.” (https://bit.ly/3V2vHZz, subscription required) That means that commercial and industrial owners in Chicago will still have to keep an eye out for any notifications of valuation spikes from the Assessor’s Office for 2022 and 2023.
2022: The northern Cook County suburbs are up for reassessment this year. As such, those in Barrington, Elk Grove, Evanston, Hanover, Leyden, Maine, New Trier, Niles, Northfield, Norwood Park, Palatine, Schaumburg, and Wheeling townships have received new assessments for the triennial cycle.
The Assessor’s Office has opened all Cook County townships for 2022 and just started certifying values in November. The only townships that haven’t closed for appeal yet are Lyons (12/22), Worth (12/24), Lake (12/27), Proviso (1/3), North Chicago (1/4), and South Chicago (1/4.)
As such, the Board of Review is now open for appeals in townships that the Assessor has certified for 2022. Group 1 consists of Riverside, Oak Park, Calumet, Cicero, and Berwyn townships (the deadline to file for appeal is 12/20). Group 2 consists of Lemont, Norwood Park, and River Forest townships (deadline to file on these is 12/27). Group 3 just opened this week, consisting of Barrington, Hanover, and Orland townships (deadline to file is 1/10). Of these townships thus far, Barrington, Hanover, and Norwood Park were up for reassessment this year.
We advise anyone who has suffered from vacancy issues over the past year or suffered income losses related to the pandemic to make sure to document attempts to lease the vacant space, tenant concessions, deferred rents, photographs of the vacancy, and projections for a path to stabilization.
Collar Counties: 2022: The window for appeals in all collar counties – DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will – has opened and closed for all townships. The appeal sessions before the individual Boards of Review have started and hearings are ongoing.
Rock Fusco & Connelly, LLC is here to serve all your property tax needs from appeals to exemptions to incentives. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or requests.