On December 11th, 2019, the Cook County Assessor’s Office, in partnership with the City of Chicago, hosted the first CCAO Market Analyst Day. In front of a packed house of real estate market participants, the CCAO and the City of Chicago presented tools, data, and information for building owners, commercial real estate analysts, and market underwriters who invest in the City of Chicago and Cook County.

There were three goals. The first was to provide a comprehensible and predictable framework for understanding property taxes in Chicago and Cook County. The second was to show the City of Chicago’s fiscal priorities and its budget for 2020. The third was to bring transparency to the process of commercial mass appraisal before the City of Chicago is next reassessed in 2021.

In these presentations, executives from the CCAO and the City of Chicago provided details on Chicago’s financial outlook, an outline of the Cook County property tax system, and a thorough background on the commercial property mass-assessment system. In addition, the CCAO debuted the CCAO Property Tax Simulator Tool, a spreadsheet workbook intended to help explain the impacts of levies and assessments on property tax bills.

This was the first time the City of Chicago and Cook County collaborated on a series of public presentations to real estate market investors on the data and methodology behind the city’s finances and the county’s property assessments. Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave a keynote speech to kickoff the event.

Presentations from Market Analyst Day 2019 can be downloaded below.

• City of Chicago’s 2020 Budget, Levy, and Financial Outlook
  Jennie Bennett, Chief Financial Officer; City of Chicago
• How Cook County’s Property Tax System Works
  Fritz Kaegi, Assessor; Cook County
• Commercial Property Assessment: Cook County Statutes, Data, and Models
  Donald J. Meyer, Chief Valuations Officer; Cook County Assessor’s Office
• CCAO Property Tax Rate Simulator Tool
  Robert Ross, Chief Data Officer; Cook County Assessor’s Office

Some slides have been lightly revised to more clearly present results from an interactive demonstration.

Press for Market Analyst Day 2019:

• Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot joins forces with Kaegi in efforts to fix ‘broken’ assessment system
• Crain’s Chicago Business: Wondering where your property taxes are headed? Kaegi has a tool for you
• Daily Line Chicago: Kaegi defends assessment hikes, launches new tax simulator tool to 'level the playing field'

A video of the event will be available on this page soon.