| Why Property Is | What drives the assessment process? Don't be confused |
| Reassessed | by the term quadrennial year. All this means is that real |
| Each Year | property has to be reassessed by law a minimum of every |
| page 1 of 2 | four years. The real property assessment can change |
| each year do to reassessment or a township multiplier |
| applied at the county level. Even in a quadrennial year if |
| enough reassessment is not done at the township level by |
| the assessor the county will apply a county township |
| multiplier. This process is driven by the Illinois |
| Department of Revenue’s (DOR) Sales Ratio Study. |
| The study is based on a three year average of three sets |
| of years sale data for a given township. It is done this |
| way so that anyone year will not skew the results of the |
| study in a particular direction. The study done each year |
| monitors the level of assessment of all good sales (reflects |
| market value) of real property. The previous year's |
| assessment is divided by the current year’s sale price. |
| Ideally it should be 33 1/3% (.3333) the state mandated |
| level. If the majority of the sales in the study indicate a |
| level of assessment that is below 33 1/3 percent the |
| Illinois Department of Revenue computes a tentative |
| factor to drive assessed values upward in a jurisdiction or |
| township. The converse is true if the study indicates a |
| level of assessment above 33 1/3%. Each year as the new |
| year of sales enter the study and the oldest year of sales |
| drops out of the study the results are modified by this |
| exchange of data. |
| If the assessor makes no changes at the township level all |
| properties within in the township will receive the state |
| multiplier. It is applied at the County level and is called a |
| township equalization factor. In a perfect system if all |
| properties reflected the same level of assessment this can |
| work and no property becomes over or under assessed. |
| Since the Market is constantly changing this rarely takes |
| place except for maybe short period of time. At the |
| township level the assessor needs to break the DOR’s |
| Study down to a neighborhood level to monitor the |
| changes in the Market and make appropriate adjustments. |
| For example if you have one neighborhood where |
| property is selling according to its assessed value the |
| assessments may need very little adjustment or none. On |
| the other hand if another area is selling for more that |
| $10,000 over or under the estimated Market Value these |
| properties have to be adjusted to the proper assessment |
| level. Note sales must reflect market value. No it is not an |
| exact science but the assessment officials use market |
| comparison data and statically test data to do the best job |
| possible. |
| In the two examples above one can see a flat factor across |
| all properties will not yield the fairest results. If the |
| DOR’s tentative factor is 4% for example and the assessor |
| closes the assessment changes for the township with |
| page 1 of 2 | only 2% adjustment. The county will be ordered by the |
| Next to view page 2 | DOR to apply a township equalization factor of 2% more |