Monday, January 26, 2009

Boone County Smashed Record: 522 protest their tax assessments.

See the story from the Rockford Register Star :  or see it below: 

By Kevin Haas

  • RRSTAR.COM

Posted Jan 23, 2009 @ 07:32 PM

Last update Jan 23, 2009 @ 07:46 PM


BELVIDERE —

As expected, Boone County assessors received a record number of protests to their home values this year.
On Friday, the final tally of challenges was 552, which well exceeds the record 434 in 1994, Supervisor of Assessments Pat Elder said.
The deadline for challenging the assessment was Jan. 16, but the high volume of challenges took assessors a week to process.
“Back in the late ’70s and ’80s, we’re told there was close to this many, but this has broken the record since I’ve been here,” said Elder, who’s been in the office since 1993.
By comparison, there were 201 assessment protests last year and 205 in 2007. There were 70 challenges in 2006 and 61 in 2005, Elder said.
The board of review has gone over about 60 to 70 written challenges so far and will issue tentative notices to property owners based on its reviews. Property owners have five days from receiving that notice to respond and set up a personal hearing with the board, Elder said. They also can take their challenge to the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.
The assessed value of a home directly relates to how much is paid in property taxes.
Assessments have risen about 4 percent across the board in Boone County, despite the recent housing slump. That’s because assessments are made on what a home was worth
Jan. 1, 2008, and based on sales between a willing buyer and seller for the three previous years. Foreclosures, which have spiked recently, do not count when determining assessed value.
The average home price in Boone County grew about 5 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to statistics provided by the Rockford Area Realtors.
Home and condominium prices dropped 3.7 percent in 2008 across the Rock River Valley, according to the Realtors association.
Staff writer Kevin Haas can be reached at 815-544-3452 or khaas@rrstar.com.

I am doing some research on the process, have attended a number of the Board of Review working sessions. and hope to report back to you later.  If you have questions about the Board of Review,  email me here or at my personal email and we will see if we can get an answer.

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