The Assessed Valuations for the year 2010 are being worked on right now by township assessors. They will use the Illinois Department of Revenue - Sales Ratio by Township report that spans the years 2007, 2008 and 2009.

To be a prepared taxpayer, go to the DuPage County, Supervisor of Assessment Appeals page, click on the first instance of the word webpage [pop-up for assessment dates by township] and mark your calendars with the critical dates.

Don't you love the consistency among the different townships? They all have DIFFERENT Final Complaint Filing [FCF] dates. Heck, for that matter, ALL the dates are different. Wouldn't want to standardize this. Noooooo.

Milton Township's FCF date looks to be around 9/14 [as of today - 2/11/2010 - this pop-up still has last year's dates] while Bloomingdale's is 10/13.

When attempting to jump on the property tax merry-go-round, NOW is a good time to start. A new year's "raw" assessment is being worked out for your property and it will eventually become the basis of the dollar amount of taxes you will pay in June/September of 2011. By "raw" assessment, I mean the Assessor's Value, unequalized by the County Supervisor of Assessments. This can be thought of as the Top-Line number in the process, with the Bottom-Line number being the dollars you pay in two installments in 2011.

Everything that I have looked at, researched, ferreted-out indicates that for the first time in 26 years [probably longer but 26 years is my personal baseline period], we will see a decrease in EAVs for the year 2010. In fact, there probably won't be a "County Equalizer" applied [different for each township] to the Top-Line Assessor's Value for 2010. Early estimates are that the decreases in value by the local government assessing mechanisms will be in the range of 5%-7% for 2010.

Some might say: My house has lost MORE than 5% of its value! And they would be correct. Recall that the 3-year "Sales Ratio" window for 2010 includes 2007, 2008 and 2009. Early in 2007, there were just enough sales with still-decent prices occurring. This is what is slowing up the decline in EAVs.

If 2010 is as bad [or worse] a real estate sales year as 2009, 2011 Assessor's Top-Line Values will be down another 5%-7%, perhaps even more. In other words: It is a slow process but by the time 2011's assessments are being worked on, the full equity loss of real estate seen during the current and just-ended years will find its way into the assessments.

Now, here's the $64,000 question. Will your property taxes go down because of lower EAVs?

The honest answer is: They might. But they might not.

If taxing entities continue to submit budgets that are the same as the prior year, with NO CUTS, the amount of tax money that each parcel would have to pay would simply increase to "spread" the extension around. Decreases in dollar amounts of taxes paid by each parcel within the county will only come about if taxing entities on your bill request LESS MONEY.

This is going to get ugly because many property owners [me included] gritted their teeth and paid the ever-escalating property taxes with the only comfort being something like - "Well, at least my home's value is keeping up with the market and if the increasing value of my home causes my taxes to rise? So be it."

But when a DECLINING market-price situation like the one we have been in for the past three years begins to settle in and become the norm?

I don't know about anyone else but I can't get my head around paying the SAME or even MORE property tax dollars on a home that has lost between 15%-20% of its 2006 value. Yet, this is what the future holds unless schools, towns, districts [of all shape and size], county, township, township road department, etc, etc, etc begin to DECREASE THEIR BUDGETS so that they can lower their annual levy and the eventual extension.

The only reason I have posted this is so that any property tax involved people - receivers or payers - get a little heads-up about what lies ahead for the years 2010 and 2011. The tax bills for 2009 [pay in 2010] will be arriving in mailboxes in just over two months so it is really too late to take any action on them.

Basically, budgets MUST be cut. The notion that a taxing entity is "entitled" to what they received the year prior is all about to end. For the forseeable future anyway.

Thoughts?

Edit: Oh, and 2011 is what is known as a "Quadrennial Year" in DuPage County. All this means is that the assessors in each township go through a much more rigorous valuation of each and every parcel within the boundaries of their township. Kind of like a once-every-four-years "data mining" update to ensure more accuracy. In the past, it has resulted in wild swings [always higher] in assessed valuation. No telling what 2011's quad year assessments will bring!