Lake County, Illinois is taxing people out of their homes.

I’m hiring a legal firm this year to challenge my assessment.  I appealed my fair market value assessment in 1999 and won a small reduction.  Since then I suffered in silence.  The real estate boom years resulted in huge property tax increases.   Most of the folks I know in my neighborhood ask me the same question every year; “Are they going to lower our real estate taxes due to the radical drop in our property values?”  Many of these people are hanging on to their homes by only a wish and a prayer; a significant cut in their property taxes would be a blessing.

Well, the taxes on my three-bedroom house have dropped a bit but my wallet will still be $8,452.26 lighter after I pay my latest bill.  The assessor says the fair market value of my home is $264,120, even though no house in our subdivision, many of them bigger and nicer than mine, has sold anywhere near that amount.  The house next door (east side) sold for $124,000 last October.  It is time to put up a fight.