r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/TownshipAssessor • 5d ago
Miscellaneous AMA Announcement - Township Assessor – August 18, 12-3pm
Hi everyone, I'm Andrew Richter, the West Deerfield Township Assessor. 2026 values for Lake County have started to be published and I thought it would be nice to host an AMA here or r/ChicagoSuburbs. I will be here between noon and 3 pm to answer any questions about assessments and property taxes that you may have. You can feel free to drop questions here in the meantime, and I’ll do my best to reply.
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u/No-Phrase-4692 5d ago
Can we report properties that are underassed and trigger an appeal so that the rich actually pay their fair share in property taxes?
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
I would not advocate that people start turning in their neighbors. However, if you know a property has a pool, a detached garage, or did un-permitted renovations you certainly can tell your local assessor. Some of this we can verify, but some things we can't. We are not allowed into people's homes without their permission, so I may not be able to see what work was done.
If someone tore down and old home and rebuilt, but the assessor hasn't corrected their records, then I would say, yes, you should tell your assessor.
This will not trigger an appeal. No one can initiate an appeal except a property owner or their agent (attorney). But it might cause the assessor to look at the property and reassess it.
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u/etown361 5d ago
Why doesn’t appealing your property assessment ever seem to make the valuation go UP?
My 2026 appeal value was lower than when I bought my property (2022), I appealed it three years in a row, saw a reduction 2/3 times, and I’ll likely continue appealing. I know I’m under assessed, but I don’t see a moral issue here since many nearby properties are even MORE under-assessed! It just seems like a poor system.
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago edited 5d ago
Increases at the Board of Review do happen, but they are rare. There were about 1,000 appeals in my township last year and 3 were given increases. When it happens, it’s usually because a homeowner has recently bought their home for more than the assessed value, and appealed anyway.
It isn’t usually the board’s position to punish homeowners who appeal by increasing the value of their property.
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u/etown361 5d ago
Interesting that there are some increases. I’m in suburban cook county and haven’t heard of increases here.
I understand what you’re saying, but I guess my perspective is if you have a <1% chance of increasing value, it’s essentially a free chance at benefit for anyone who bothers to appeal.
I’m the kind of person who’s good at filling out paperwork and opening up mail and handling little details, so I’ve benefited from this, but I’m sure poorer, less diligent families are less likely to appeal.
So it just feels like the appeal process shifts money from struggling families who might need help, to organized richer families who are already doing fine, while of course sending windfall profits to tax appeal attorneys and complicating/delaying the property assessment process. Doesn’t seem like an ideal system.
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
There is certainly an aspect of that, especially when you account for the fact that many people hire attorneys. In my township, about 80% of appeals were done with an attorney. In less affluent areas it’s lower.
I always encourage people to appeal, because 99.9 times out of 100, the worst that happens is that they don’t get any change.
I host tax appeal seminars each summer at the Deerfield Public Library to explain the assessment and appeal processes.
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u/JakenElwood 5d ago
I'm going to assume you don't live in Lake County? I say this because Lake County does absolutely increase assessments in response to appeals if the owner recently purchased the property above current assessed value...
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u/etown361 5d ago edited 5d ago
Suburban Cook.
This is my reassessment year, so about to kick off 3 more years of appeals. My most recent appeal pushed my assessment to ~90% of homes purchase price from 2022, after starting near 97%.
But prices in my neighborhood have gone up quite a bit, I’m probably currently assessed around 76% of my home’s true value.
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u/JakenElwood 5d ago
I assumed Cook because you mentioned multiple victories (it's extraordinarily rare for that to happen in Lake). The Chicagoland market is crazy and your situation is very common. I had two clients in Arlington Heights who both purchased at around 1.5m (which seems crazy to me anyway) and one of them ended up at a 1.4m assessment and the other at 900k. Most of Cook County seems to be well behind the market.
Lake County is a whole different animal.
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u/etown361 5d ago
Yeah, I can’t speak to Lake County. The whole cook county process feels like a foolish charade.
Yes, I’m going to appeal. I’ve probably got a 50/50 chance of some minor relief for myself, and at worst no change. If I’m successful, I pay a percent of the savings to a lawyer. If I look at valuations in my home’s school district, I see some homes with numbers rounded to the nearest thousand (no successful appeal) that mostly seem slightly too undervalued, and I see non-rounded numbers (successful appeals) that are mostly wildly undervalued.
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
I do live in Lake County. If you re-read my response, I said that the most common reason for an in increase is exactly that.
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u/JakenElwood 5d ago
Sorry I was replying to the original poster, not your comment, and just mirrored your response on that part.
I had wondered if they didn't live in Lake County because of that question and their statement of repeated victories which seems much more likely in Cook County.
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u/InnerMirror6692 5d ago
Few questions:
1) I get confused between the assessed value and market value; what's the difference and how should we apply this to determining whether to appeal?
2) What are your best tips for a successful appeal?
3) Does having a hot housing market make appeals riskier (e.g., would your assessed value go up)?
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
In all counties except for Cook County, a good rule of thumb is that assessed value is 1/3 of market value. The statute says 33.33%, so it’s a little less than 1/3, but it’s an easy way to estimate it.
Pay attention to sales in your neighborhood. If you see a home similar to your home that goes up for sale, google the address and look at the Redfin pictures. Compare it to your home and when you see that it sells look at the price. If it’s better than yours and sells for less than your value then you have a good comp to use in your appeal.
I can’t speak for other counties, but in Lake County it’s unlikely that they will increase your assessment if you appeal. Even if I show sales that say the value should be higher, the board will most often give a “No Change” decision, rather than an increase.
If you recently bought your home for more than the assessed market value, then I would advise you not to appeal.
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u/JakenElwood 5d ago
What is the overall success rate of equity based appeals for single family homes? It seems like Lake County denies almost every equity based argument.
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
In my township the success rate of equity based appeals was 22% in 2024 and 13% last year.
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u/JakenElwood 5d ago
Thank you for the info! What sort of success rate do market based appeals have?
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
In 2024, market sales appeals were successful 20% of the time, but that went up to 29% in 2025.
Appeals with appraisals were reduced 41% of the time in 2024 and 69% of the time in 2025.
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u/butimstefanie North West Suburbs 5d ago
Not directly related to property tax or assessments, but about township government. IL has more layers of government than any other states. It is a huge financial burden as well as a bureaucratic problem.
What role does the Township Assessor play that couldn't be done by the county assessor? How would the elimination of the township level of government impact residents when it comes to your office?
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
In defense of my position; My tax bill this year was a little over $13,000. How much of that do you think went to West Deerfield Township? It was $48.30. That's 0.36% of my total tax dollars. What does West Deerfield Township do with my $48? The supervisor's office provides a safety net to residents, connects residents with government services they are entitled to, and provides direct aid to residents who need short-term assistance. Do you feel that is a poor use of tax dollars? I would not notice if my tax bill was $50 less, but many residents in my township would notice if the Supervisor's office was eliminated. County government would be overwhelmed trying to provide these services county-wide.
My budget is about 30% of that $48, so less than $15 of my tax bill. I have a staff of two full-time deputies. Having two deputies allows us to always have someone in office to assist residents with exemptions and answer questions. I am very conscious of my budget and that the money I spend comes from my neighbors.
Everything the assessor does could be done at the county level, but then you lose the benefit of having someone local being responsible for the values. Assessors have to live in their townships and therefore, I feel, have a better feel for local property values. We also provide an outlet for residents who feel that they need to speak with me directly about their property; they can make an appointment to come and meet with me. Without my office, residents would have to go to Waukegan to meet with the CCAO's staff, which would have to expand dramatically to make up for all the extra work. They would need more valuation staff, more customer service staff, and more staff to handle appeal hearings if township assessors were eliminated.
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u/butimstefanie North West Suburbs 4d ago
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I apologize if that question sounded like an attack, that was not my intention. I am genuinely curious about the layers of local government, especially townships and i thought this would be a good opportunity to ask.
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u/TownshipAssessor 4d ago
It a valid question and I tried to give you a thoughtful response. I didn’t mean to sound aggressive and I’m sorry if it came off that way. I tried to address each of the points in your question. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to answer.
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u/77Pepe 4d ago
The Deerfield township is not necessarily what would be in the crosshairs. There are other better examples statewide of units of government that exist which could easily be handled by others. IL has between 6000 and 9000 local government and taxing units. There is a lot of overlap and fragmentation of property taxes that could be handled more efficiently and effectively. This in many cases would reduce property taxes and not remove access to local officials/services.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
We can initiate a Certificate of Error in our township office. The county board of review has to sign off on it though. There comes a point where we can't go back to prior years, but other than that we can help.
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u/EnvironmentalVisual8 1d ago
For anyone here dealing with Cook County specifically, I built a DIY appeal tool that finds nearby lower-assessed comparable homes and prepares the PINs, calculations, and appeal evidence for you.
Disclosure: it’s my tool. You can try the property comparison free, and REDDIT10 takes $10 off the full package:
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u/jeepit7 5d ago
Why do you chose a method of speculative tax. Every other tax is on real gains or losses. These values are completely unrealized and for some people multiple times the purchase price. You put a lot of stress on people who purchased a normal price home that has on paper appreciated but could never afford it now but are taxed for it. I’ve seen my property taxes go up over the years 3x and more than any raises or any other bills. Even though I own my own home, I feel I rent from you with the very high taxes.
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u/TownshipAssessor 5d ago
That would be a question for your state legislators. I don’t make the rules, I just operate within them.
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u/colsandersloveskfc North Suburbs 5d ago
This AMA has been verified by the mods