Reassessment
All residents of Cook County can expect a big jump in their property values when the triennial reassessment of their homes and businesses occurs. Every three years, a section of the county is reassesed by the Cook County Assessor’s Office (CCAO), which leads to massive spikes in property value. As property value is the basis for all taxes, these sharp increases lead to larger bills. While Lakeview will not be reassessed in 2026, it still has to deal with increasing tax rates and the equalization factor.
How Property Owners Can Save
Property taxes in Cook County have increased for 30 years straight and show no sign of stopping. These unpredictable bills can make life difficult for businesses and homeowners alike, as no one knows exactly what they will get every year. Tax uncertainty has even driven the Chicago Bears to look outside the city for a new place to build a stadium. While systemic issues keep driving tax increases, taxpayers can fight back with a variety of techniques.
Exemptions:
Every homeowner’s journey to tax reduction should start with the homeowner’s exemption if they don’t already have one. This provides a large reduction in equalized assessed value (EAV). This can be improved upon by exemptions for seniors, veterans, the disabled, and more. If a property owner missed the deadline, they can still file a certificate of error to get a missing exemption.
Property Tax Appeals:
These are challenges against the values levied by the CCAO itself, and are based on either overassessment or unequal assessment. While these do require extensive evidence to be successful, they can save significant tax dollars for both homes and businesses.
Cost Segregation:
While it is used to lower federal income taxes instead of property taxes, this can save businesses more money than any other tax-saving strategy. This uses accelerated depreciation to write down costs and can potentially eliminate income taxes entirely in the first year. The upfront investment can be significant, but cost segregation is usually worth it.
Property Tax Appeals are Becoming Key in Cook County
While they have become a general part of the lexicon since the disastrous 2023 reassessment, property tax appeals have always been an effective tool to right the wrongs created by the CCAO’s overzealous assessments. In 2025, the average property tax for a home increased by 16%, while some townships saw increases of over 100%. This led to the unprecedented step of the Board of Review (BOR) opening up appeals for a third go in December, along with a lengthy education campaign to inform the public about appeals. This bore significant fruit in 2026, with appeals being filed in record numbers, even outside of areas undergoing reassessment.
While homeowners and businesses have a lot of obstacles when it comes to property values, they have the advantage of having two different deadlines and appeal types. The first is assessor appeals, which are directly with the CCAO itself. In these meetings, the taxpayer can submit their evidence and attempt to get their assessed values brought down to realistic levels. If this fails, then a second round can be had with the BOR later in the year. For the people of Lakeview, the assessor deadline comes in July, while the BOR comes in the fall.
July 13, 2026: Assessor appeal deadline
April 1, 2026: First installment of property taxes due
November 2026: Second installment of property taxes due
Pending: BOR appeal deadline
O’Connor Offers Elite Evidence
The hardest part of filing an appeal is gathering evidence. Not only is this the most important step, but it can take expertise to unravel some of the mysteries. To prove that a home or business is overassessed, a taxpayer must collect comparable sales dating back three years. These must be in the same location, with similar size, age, condition and characteristics. For cases involving a lack of uniformity in assessment, a taxpayer must find several assessments that have the same criteria as those for home sales. No matter the grounds selected, the evidence must be precise and curated to support the taxpayer’s case.
We at O’Connor are here to lend aid to taxpayers looking to appeal by providing expertise in evidence gathering. For over 50 years, we have put together cases against appraisal districts and assessors across the nation. When clients sign up with us, we will gather all of the key evidence for them after analyzing their assessment for any potential issues or leads. We then use data-driven techniques and our patented databases to find the exact evidence required, including sales records and assessments. Once this is put together, we will coordinate an appeal with a law firm with expertise in property tax matters. Our clients will never pay an upfront fee for this evidence or analysis, and we only ask for a percentage of the savings if our client and their attorney can get a reduction on their taxes.
