Responsibilities of the
Assessor
Appraisal of Township properties
To assess means to determine the value of something. The Township
Assessor is an elected official who determines the value of property
for tax purposes. The Assessor does not estimate or
compute the Real Estate Taxes, does not send out Tax
Bills, and does not collect Property Taxes.
The Assessor is responsible for the fair and equitable appraisal of
every parcel of property in his or her jurisdiction.
The Township Assessor keeps Property Record Cards which contain all
the pertinent information about each parcel. The information includes
the following: a brief legal description, land size, dimensions of all
buildings, building type, and quality of materials used in
construction of the structure. Most of this information is gathered
when the property improvement is first built, and then updated
afterward through periodic field inspections. Property Record Cards
are available for inspection through our website.
The Township Assessor also receives Real Estate Transfer documents for
properties that have sold in the Township. This sales information,
along with other facts and figures about housing conditions, goes into
the valuation process. The Assessor estimates how much a property
would sell for on the open market.
Market Value, as used in the appraisal of real
estate, is defined by the Appraisal Institute as:
The most probable price, as of
a specified date, in cash or in terms equivalent to cash, or in other
precisely revealed terms, for which the specified property rights
should sell after reasonable exposure in a competitive market under
all conditions requisite to a fair sale, with the buyer and seller
each acting prudently, knowledgeably, for self interest, and assuming
that neither is under duress.
The basis for all assessments and reassessments is
Market Value (occasionally the terms "full value" or
"fair cash value" are used.
According to Illinois State law, all property in Illinois (except
Cook County) should be assessed at 33.33%, or one-third of Market
Value.
This is known as the Level of Assessment. For
example, if a home could be sold for $330,000, the Assessed Valuation
would be approximately $110,000 ($330,000 x .3333). Once the Market
Value of a property is determined, the Township Assessor places the
value of the property at the required percentage which results in the
Assessed Valuation.
