TAXES

[Boris]

Hello fellow Berwyn-buddies,

I have to start out by stating that I am a newbie home-owner. When I bought this place a year and a half ago, it was the first house I ever lived in (my parents were apartment dwellers...always on the move). The folks here on this board have been crazy-helpful in helping me find eveything from landscapers (thanks Saluki!) to roofers and places to drink or order pizza.

OK- now to the crux of the biscuit: I just got a letter from my mortgage company informing me of a projected shortage in the escrow account that pays my property taxes. This would be a nearly 30% increase from last year!

Does this seem right?

UPDATE: a friend who owns a business here, just told me his taxes went up 50%!

[java]

Boris,
That is certainly possible.  The year after I bought my house here, the property taxes went up 38%.  I think that was a combination of the tri-annual assessment in 2002 and the fact that the property changed hands.  In the last three years, the increases have been more moderate (btw 2 and 4%).  If I were you I'd go to the www.cookcountyassessor.com website and do a residential property search.  If you don't know your PIN, you can search by address.  This is a good way to compare your assessed value with that of your neghbors, to make sure you are in the same ballpark.  Hope this helps...

[renovatorbear]

There may be several reasons that your escrow is short.  Certainly, an increase in taxes could account for all or part of it. 

When I closed on my place 4 years ago, I got a similar letter from my mortgage holder.  I was very angry and assumed that the people who had calculated what my escrow should be had made errors.  They had, but there were other factors too.  For instance, if your escrow was based on the tax amount that the previous owner was paying, that amount might have reflected a homeowner's exemption that you don't yet qualify for.  That would cause your bill to go up and your escrow to fall short.  Additionally, the previous owner may also have had a senior exemption that is no longer being applied to your tax bill.  Same thing happens.

In my case, it was all of the above.  Plus, a few weeks after I closed I received a check from the title company that had handled my closing.  It was for about $1100. I inquired why and was told that it was some sort of settlement error in my favor.  Waa-hoo!  As a first timer, I believed them.  Turns out that money should have been sent to my mortgage holder for escrow.  So when tax time rolled around my escrow account was, surprise, $1100 short. 

Long story short, my monthly payment increased by $120.  Fortunately, interest rates dropped the next year and I refinanced, dropping my monthly payment by a significant amount.

[java]

Escrow is a nice way to smooth your payments, but given how the calculations are done (tri-annual assessment x equalization factor x rates minus exemptions = tax), I have never felt comfortable with a bank or title company handling my taxes and trusting them to get it right.  I like to get the bill and see how every taxing authority is making up the total, and ensure that the homeowner's exemption is included.  The downside of course is that I have a tough bill to pay 2x a year.

[OakParkSpartan]

I had a similar thing happen...turns out the mortgage company neglected to include any $$'s for the insurance.  That caused a shortage, so, I had to make up for the shortage, plus put in enough to cover the bill next year, plus a 10-15% cushion.  I think mine went up a couple hundred bucks per month.  The following year it went down a little over a hundred, which made me feel a bit happier.  Last year it stayed pretty much the same.  But it was a big shock that first year.  (I also didn't get the senior citizen exemption that the previous owner had).

Java, I still get my tax bill 2x's a year, even though I pay into escrow.

Cheers,
Brian

[Bonster]

It happened to us one year.  Escrow withheld is based projected values for tax & insurance, so if they shoot too low you'll either have to pay a lump sum to make it up, or opt for a larger "mortgage payment" the next year.  I'd opt for a one-time payment (if feasible) to keep the monthly payments down.

This would be a nearly 30% increase from last year!

The guy two doors down from me went from the low 4's to $6500.  This caught him by surprise; he didn't know and didn't fight it.
We fought tooth & nail, and saved about $400.  I wonder what the two similar houses by you are paying??

[renovatorbear]

One other point...

java's suggestion to check out the www.cookcountyassessor.com website is a good one.  I also found that my property taxes had been settled at closing and then the first installment of the next year's had been paid again by my mortgage holder.  Bottom line, one installment of taxes had been paid twice, which also adversely effected my escrow account.  I was able to get the overpayment refunded to me, but I had to provide documentation from the closing and proof of the overpayment to the assessor's office.

[tony la]

I can tell you what the taxes are just e mail me.

[pkd50]

The Berwyn Assessor can help you.  They have a program to pull up comps on property that is similiar to yours. 

[gregdogg62]

Did you send in your Homeowners exemption form for this year?  We are new to the process and ran into the same thing that our taxes were through the roof.  You need to fill out these forms and take them to the office in Maywood.  They will then recalculate your tax bill.  Our upcoming September payment was reduced $1,700.00

http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/forms/HoCofE.pdf

http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/forms/owneroccuaff.pdf

[Boris]

Well, it turns out that I have never gotten a tax bill because the assesor's office is still sending them to the woman that we bought the house from 2 years ago! And yes, dogg, we are entitled to an exemption that we never claimed. Off to Maywood monday morn. Thanks.

[Boris]

Went to the county offices in City Hall (Clark St.): a very good hour of bureacracy! I got my tax bill lowered by $2,000 (!!!), and filed an appeal to have it lowered even further (thanks, Tony...). Off to another office for the address/name change, and BOOM, done: 55 minutes from start to finish.

thanks to all for the advice. Now, if I could just figure out who the big happy guy is at OoT...

WOOF

[delbowz]

I need to send a big thank you out too!  Only 45 minutes in line reduced my bill by $1700 - WOO HOO.

Thank you so much for the advice.

Denise

[Bonster]

heh...Boris (or anyone new), go to Online Tools, Residential Property Search on that Cook County Assessor's page, or

http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/filings/searchflat//search.asp

put in your address, and see what your house looked like in 2000.  There it is...evil tree & all.

[Boris]

Oh yeah...did that first-off, Bonster. What's also interesting is that Google Earth has been updated since April of 2005 (probably in summer of last year), because when I zoom in on my house, I can now see all the lanscaping we did a year ago...

...cool.