If a Reassessment Notice reached your south or west suburban home this year, set the Chicago headlines aside for a minute. Your notice belongs to Cook County’s 2026 general reassessment of the south and west suburbs. The address, property characteristics, updated estimated fair market value, and last-file date on that page are more useful to you now than any countywide statistic.
Quick Answer
In 2026 the Assessor’s calendar puts the south and west suburbs through the general reassessment. Chicago and the north suburbs are not, except for permit work, divisions, and other special changes. Chicago’s 2024 numbers stay in 2024.
Cook County has **38 townships**. Eight are in the City of Chicago: Hyde Park, Jefferson, Lake, Lake View, North Chicago, Rogers Park, South Chicago, and West Chicago. The county reassesses on a three-year geographic rotation. In 2026, the Assessor’s calendar puts the south and west suburbs through the general reassessment. Chicago and the north suburbs are outside this year’s general cycle, except for permit work, divisions, and other special changes. Use that calendar. Do not assign 2026 by counting forward from 35 ILCS 200/9-220.
For a south or west suburban owner, the notice is the start of a property-level question: does the county’s record describe your home, and does its estimated market value make sense in the current market?
Begin with the characteristics. Read the class, square footage, age, construction, occupancy, and any other details shown for the parcel. A valuation model can begin with a bad premise when the property card says a finished area is larger than it is, records an improvement that is not there, or puts the property in the wrong class. Those are concrete facts an owner can check before trying to make sense of the final value.
Then read the estimated fair market value as a market claim. The Assessor describes it as what the office believes properties like yours are worth in the current real estate market. Its owner guidance says an appeal may be appropriate when the listed characteristics are incorrect or the estimated market value is significantly more than what the home could sell for. “My taxes feel high” does not answer either question. A recent appraisal, arm’s-length sale, or well-matched comparable may.
The last-file date deserves the same attention as the value. The Assessor says owners typically have 30 days after receiving a reassessment notice, but the controlling date is the one printed for the filing period. The Board of Review runs a separate township calendar and gives each township its own window. An owner can file with the Board when that window opens even without having filed first with the Assessor, so one closed window does not tell you whether every county-level option has closed.
This is where Chicago’s tax year 2024 record is useful, provided it stays in tax year 2024.
During Chicago’s 2024 reassessment, residential total assessed value rose **17.52%** from tax year 2023 to tax year 2024. **Over 830,000** non-exempt Chicago parcels received updated 2024 assessments, and **nearly 45%** of those parcels were appealed. Those are aggregate Chicago figures, not a forecast for a particular south or west suburban home in 2026. They do not tell you whether the characteristics or value on your notice are accurate.
The appeal results add another layer. The Cook County Board of Review reported that it reduced **appealed Chicago residential assessments by approximately 2.8%** for tax year 2024. For **appealed Chicago commercial and industrial assessments**, the reported reduction was **19.85%**. Both numbers describe appealed property in Chicago during tax year 2024. Neither is a Censum result, a promise of savings, or a benchmark for a 2026 suburban filing.
The gap between approximately 2.8% and 19.85% is also a warning against blending property types. Residential and commercial or industrial assessments do not begin from the same classification level, and their evidence can look very different. A homeowner’s useful evidence may center on an incorrect property card, nearby comparable homes, recent sales, or an appraisal. A commercial record may turn on income and expense statements, rent rolls, leases, an appraisal, and other evidence the Board says it considers.
Cook assesses residential property at **10%** of estimated fair market value and commercial property at **25%** of fair cash value. The Board’s illustration is a **$250,000** home, which at 10% is **$25,000** assessed value before the state multiplier and exemptions. That example belongs to the Board, not to the reader’s house. IDOR’s final Cook County equalization factor for **tax year 2025** is **3.0300**, announced June 18, 2026; the final tax year 2024 factor was **3.0355**. The multiplier equalizes assessments. It is not a tax-rate increase, and **3.0300 is not a sourced tax year 2026 multiplier**. It should not be treated as a figure on a 2026 Reassessment Notice. Censum Sense 04 follows the Board’s $250,000 example through EAV and exemptions; this issue leaves that full path there so the geography stays clear.
The Chicago figures therefore offer context, not a shortcut. The 17.52% increase does not prove that your south-suburban assessment should rise by the same amount. The approximately 2.8% residential reduction does not establish what the Board would do with your evidence. And the 19.85% commercial and industrial figure should not be imported into a homeowner’s expectations simply because all three numbers came from one annual report.
Your parcel has to carry its own case. If the record is wrong, identify the specific characteristic and support the correction. If the estimated market value seems high, compare it with what the property could sell for and look for properties that are genuinely similar. The Assessor cautions that two homes in the same township, neighborhood, and class are not necessarily comparable; age, square footage, construction, and style still matter. Similar properties should have similar assessed values, which is why the Assessor calls one appeal reason “Lack of Uniformity.”
A familiar address alone is not a comparable. The Board says its decisions are rooted in the evidence presented, which is a better guide than reverse-engineering an expected result from last year’s citywide percentages.
A Chicago or north-suburban owner may still receive a notice tied to permit work, a division, or another special change, and an owner outside the general reassessment can still use the Board when the township opens. “Not in the 2026 general reassessment” does not mean “no assessment activity.” It means the reason for the notice and the calendar have to be read correctly.
Read the notice while there is still time to act on it. Check the property before the percentage. Check the last-file date before assuming a countywide deadline. If the record or estimated value does not hold up, build the filing around the evidence that shows why.
Sources
- Cook County Assessor, Assessment & Appeal Calendar
- Cook County Assessor, Overview of How Appeals Work
- Cook County Board of Review, Tax Year 2024 Annual Report
- Illinois Department of Revenue, tax year 2025 Cook County final multiplier
- Illinois Department of Revenue, tax year 2024 Cook County final multiplier
- Censum FAQ
Sources accessed 2026-09-02.
FAQ
Is Chicago in the 2026 general reassessment?
No, except for permit work, divisions, and other special changes. Cook County has 38 townships; eight are in Chicago. Use the Assessor’s calendar. Do not assign 2026 by counting forward from 35 ILCS 200/9-220.
What is 3.0300 on my notice?
It is not a sourced tax year 2026 multiplier and should not be treated as a figure on a 2026 Reassessment Notice. IDOR’s final Cook County equalization factor for tax year 2025 is 3.0300, announced June 18, 2026. The final tax year 2024 factor was 3.0355.
Do Chicago’s 2024 appeal results predict my 2026 notice?
No. Chicago residential total assessed value rose 17.52% from tax year 2023 to 2024. On appeals that were filed, the Board reduced appealed Chicago residential assessments by about 2.8% and Chicago commercial and industrial assessments by 19.85%. Those describe tax year 2024 in Chicago.
Does Censum file the appeal for me?
No. Censum LLC is a data and analytics company, not a law firm and not a tax advisor. You file your own appeal.
Next step
Read the notice for the last-file date, estimated market value, and property characteristics. Look up your PIN if you need to confirm which calendar applies.
Censum LLC is a data and analytics company, not a law firm and not a tax advisor. You file your own appeal. Censum is independent and is not affiliated with Cook County or any government agency.