Good time to check your tax assessment

I am encouraged to see that real estate taxes will be going down. Not too soon, however, given the slump in values and in sales throughout Kane County.

Supervisor of Assessments Mark Armstrong was quoted recently as saying that the median sales price of homes for January 2008 had declined 5.3 percent.

Many homes are over assessed and have been for years, given the practice of jacking up assessed value by some arbitrary percentage before the township assessor makes adjustments.

It is good news that Armstrong understands the declining values and is ready to revalue 2008-09 in a fair and reasonable way.

A decline of 5.3 percent would mean a $200,000 home would be revalued at less than $190,000, which is still likely to be above the price a seller would get in this market. What this does is to give all the timid homeowners a reason to object to the assessment on their property without being beaten down by the statement that housing values are always up.

Do not fail to talk with your township assessor about the value of your property. Only fools pay more taxes that they should.

Mark Anderson

St. Charles