Lake Villa Township property owners received the 2009 Assessment Notices this week to find most values increased.  In this depressed real estate market it does not make sense.  There are several reasons for the change in your value that are discussed below.

2009 Equalization Factor

The 2009 equalization factor for Lake Villa Township is 1.0306.  This factor is applied to all non-farm parcels in the Township.  It does not mean your taxes are going up 3.06%.  The factor is used to adjust assessments to 33-1/3% of market value, the state mandated level of assessment.  There is another article detailing the equalization factor  Read Article

Revaluation by the Assessor’s Office

My office is revaluing neighborhoods each year for several reasons.  First and foremost, we are trying to improve the quality of assessed values in the Township.  Part of the revaluations process is to re-measure all parcels in the Township.  This ensures we are using the most accurate property descriptions to creating accurate valuations.  Next we create and adjust values to reflect market activity based on sales that have occurred in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Assessed Value Vs Current Market Value.  Most importantly we revalue properties to create better uniformity.  Uniformity is where like properties are assessed alike.  Equal treatment means equal tax distribution where each taxpayer only pays their fair share.

In my experience being Assessor here for the past 5 years, assessment equity is the biggest problem in this Township.  There are areas in this Township that have not been comprehensively revalued in over 20 years.  Obviously there are going to be problems where two houses being the same style, size, and year built can have wildly divergent values.  It is not uncommon for my office to revalue a neighborhood and find values going up and down by 15%.  After a revaluation, there is marked improvement where the range of values has decreased.  

Whether an assessment increase is due to application of the equalization factor or as a result of a neighborhood revaluation, the goal of our office is to create an accurate, fair, and uniform assessment to fairly and equitably distribute the tax burden.