There are several Townships that will be publishing their 2010 assessments in the next several weeks. For Wauconda Township, we anticipate our Assessment Notices will be issued in late September. However, homeowners should begin the process of gathering data preparing to evaluate their property's assessment. To assist homeowners we are providing information on the types of valuation arguments and the types of data necessary to support a change in valuation in Wauconda Township.

The first place to begin this process is with my office. Always contact the Assessor's Office with any questions before filing a formal appeal to the Board of Review. Our office has been receiving appraisals, sales and other requests for review of assessment throughout the year. We review all data we receive which helps us to evaluate all assessments in a given area.

Because the real estate market is still declining, assessed values will also decline. For this year most all Wauconda Township values are decreasing. This trend should continue for the next several years. Illinois law requires that Assessor's use the sales from the three preceding years to establish your assessed value. The result of using this type of averaging is that assessments do not decrease (or increase) as fast as the current market indicates.

Now the question is, "What about my tax bill? When will that go down?" In all likelihood, it won't. Assessments are going down because of the decline in the real estate market. Generally tax bills are going up as a result of spending by taxing bodies such as schools and villages. If spending doesn't go down, taxes won't go down either. Property taxes exist because of local government spending. So, if government spending and the "levy" requests do not decrease, most of us will see no relief in our tax bills. In fact, if levies go up because of government spending, tax bills can actually go up, even with assessments going down.

Links
Property Tax Assessment Information
http://www.lakecountyil.gov/Assessor/AssessmentInformation/PropertyTaxAssessmentInfo/Default.htm

EXEMPTIONS

For information on the Illinois Homestead Exemption Program, including General Homestead Exemption, Homestead Improvement Exemption, Senior Homestead Exemption and Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption, click here.
For information on the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral Program, click here.
For information on the Senior Citizen Circuit Breaker Grants, click here.
For information on the Disabled Veterans Exemption, click here.

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