Disagree with that 13% increase in your home’s taxable value? The deadline to challenge nears

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Home and business owners across Winnebago County were greeted this summer with another double-digit increase to the taxable value of their property.

The taxable value of all property across Winnebago County increased more than 13% this year to a record high $7.27 billion, according to the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessments. That comes after an 11% increase in 2023, and it’s the third consecutive year of record-high values in the county.

The increase can largely be credited to a hot local real estate market that has seen record-high sale prices and was named the top housing market in the country this spring by the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com.

That real estate market will make it difficult for homeowners to challenge their assessments in an attempt to prove their property was overvalued and lower their tax burden.

Attorney Jim Tuneberg, who specializes in assessment challenges, said there is growing frustration from who have watched their tax bills increase.

“I’m hearing a lot of frustration from both residential and commercial property owners,” said Tuneberg, an attorney with Rockford-based Guyer & Enichen.

Property owners have until Aug. 30 or Aug. 31 — depending on which township you live in — to file a challenge to what tax assessors say your home or business is worth.

Assessments are one part of the formula that determines your total tax bill. The other portion depends on how much local governments decide to collect with their annual levy.

If your property value rises but governments collect the same or less, the tax rate will be lower. But a lower rate doesn’t necessarily mean a lower bill. That depends on how much the value of your property has changed. The tax rate in Rockford’s largest tax code has fallen by 5 percentage points since 2015, but many will still pay higher total dollar amounts because of large increases in value.

Challenges are a common practice for property owners looking to lower how much they pay in property taxes. There were nearly 1,300 such challenges last year. That was double the previous year but still far below the record 7,433 that came in 2011 as the county was still reeling from the housing market collapse that began in late 2007.

There have been a little less than 200 challenges so far this year, but Supervisor of Assessments Tom Hodges expects the final tally to be similar to 2022 and 2021, when 655 and 750 challenges were filed. The number was higher last year because it was a quadrennial assessment year, when every parcel in the county gets reassessed.

The taxable value of your property is based on sales of similar homes or businesses in the three prior years. The higher taxable values have followed the record high home sale prices.

“Because the market has been so strong on the residential side it will be difficult for a lot of property owners to find evidence to be successful in an appeal,” said Ken Crowley, Rockford Township assessor.

It’s difficult, but not impossible. Last year, nearly 63% of the 1,289 challenges were successful in receiving some sort of reduction, although not necessarily the amount they sought.

Tuneberg said it’s key for homeowners to consider the condition of their property compared with those being sold. For example, assessors may be using sales from a homeowner who installed a new roof or made multiple renovations before putting it on the market for a higher price. A similar-sized home in a similar location without such improvements wouldn’t draw the same sale price, but it still gets tied to those high sales prices by assessors.

“An individual challenge can still be made based on the present condition of a subject property,” Tuneberg said. “The focus for a residential property owner would be to assess the actual condition of their property versus the condition of sale comparable properties.”

Tuneberg said this year he’s seeing an increase in interest from commercial property owners, largely because they have the same multiplier applied to their company as homeowners do. That multiplier, which is used to create uniformity between all townships on assessments, may cost homeowners a small amount but large businesses several thousand dollars.

Last year, challenges resulted in the total county value falling by about $24 million to $6.41 billion, a reduction of less than half a percentage point.

The tax rate will be determined in April after all local taxing bodies have determined their levy and after the board of review hears assessment challenges.

How to challenge

Property owners who disagree with the assessed value of their home can submit a complaint to the Winnebago County Board of Review.

You can access the complaint form HERE.

Before you file a complaint you should complete THIS CHECKLIST.

To learn more about challenges, visit the supervisor of assessments website HERE.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas