DuPage County property assessments stagnate

Residential property assessments, used to determine tax bills for DuPage County homeowners, are stagnant, reflecting the downturn in the housing market.

After years of seeing property values rise dramatically throughout the county, only six of the county's township assessors reported any residential property assessment growth. The largest spike was in Naperville Township, which experienced a 2.2 percent bump. Winfield and Wayne Township property assessments declined, while Addison Township showed a negligible increase.

"It's quite abnormal," said DuPage Supervisor of Assessments Craig Dovel. "What you're seeing is the downturn in the market is finally catching up with the assessments."

Individual assessment notices have been mailed to homeowners and businesses during the past several weeks. The deadline for township assessors to finish their work was Nov. 15.

No change in assessments does not necessarily mean no increase in property taxes. The lion's share of property taxes are paid to school districts. But most school districts aren't taxing property owners at full power, officials said. So, even with stagnant assessments that won't add revenue to school district coffers, many districts can just increase tax rates to make up for shortfalls.

"I have every tax bill I've paid for the last 25 years, and it didn't start getting depressing until about four years ago," said Jim Moore, a Glendale Heights resident and Queen Bee Elementary District 16 taxpayer. "In 1985, 34 percent of my tax bill was Queen Bee and now they are 50 percent."

Dovel echoed Moore's concerns about tax bills.

"Changes in the assessed valuation are occurring, not in the actual tax bills," he said.

Township assessors take real estate market data from 2006, 2007 and 2008 into account when they came up with this year's assessment figures. By all accounts, 2006 was concerned a good year for real estate, but 2007 and 2008 were considered bad ones. When assessments are calculated next year, it will be done with data from three bad years, Dovel said.

"We expect to see measurable decreases next year," he said.

Overall, the county's total assessed residential property value of $35.5 billion is up less than 1 percent compared to last year's $35.3 billion figure, according to information released by Dovel's office.