•A major tax-assessment break is being phased out, starting in the city, and home values are rising in the eyes of the government, even if they would sell for less on today's market.Check out this graphic. According to that Englewood's property taxes are up 43.1%. Englewood isn't exactly a booming area at this moment. Still that's like WOW!
•Though property-tax caps softened the blow in many cases, those ceilings don't apply to all towns. In some suburbs, voters approved referendum measures, raising their own taxes.
•County assessments are done every three years, meaning homeowners get socked all at once. In the north and northwest suburbs, where bills reflect the most recent assessments, the values are based on the housing market as it was nearly two years ago.
•The so-called 7 percent-a-year limit on assessment increases—an exemption designed to soften the blow of rising home values and their effect on taxes—varies depending on several factors, including length of ownership, increase in assessed value, time of purchase and income.
The county property-tax system now is so complex and depends on so many variables that even the experts can't predict what the average homeowner's bill will look like, said Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation.
"Cook County has always had a complex property-tax system, but recent changes by the legislature . . . have made it incomprehensible and unpredictable," Msall said.
The Trib also offers ways to cut down your tax bill.
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