What makes a strong uniformity appeal

What a uniformity appeal argues

The Illinois constitution requires property to be taxed uniformly within its class. Practically, that means: if your home is assessed noticeably higher than comparable homes nearby, you have grounds for a reduction — regardless of whether your home’s value is, in some absolute sense, exactly what the county says. Uniformity appeals are about fairness relative to your neighbors, not a fresh appraisal from scratch.

The metric: assessed value per square foot

The Cook County Board of Review’s own published guidance for presenting a uniformity case tells homeowners to divide the building assessment by the building’s square footage, then compare that per-square-foot figure against comparable homes. It’s the building assessment specifically — not the land — because land values are handled separately and vary by lot rather than by structure.

If your home’s building assessed value per square foot is meaningfully above the typical figure for genuinely comparable homes near you, that gap is the heart of your appeal.

What counts as a real comparable

The Board is specific about what makes a comparison fair. A good comparable is:

• The same property class as your home — the county’s own classification code, not just “also a house.”
• On your block, or close to it — the Board’s guidance prefers comps on your own block, and otherwise within the same neighborhood classification the county already assigns.
• Similar in size, age, and construction — a comparable isn’t just nearby, it should be a genuinely similar structure.

The Board’s guidance recommends bringing 3 to 5 comparable properties. For each one, you want the PIN, the address, the assessed value, and a photo — the same package of facts the county uses internally, presented so a reviewer can check every figure against the public record.

The one thing that undermines a uniformity appeal

Cherry-picking. If your comparables are hand-picked to be the lowest-assessed homes on the block while ignoring a dozen similar homes assessed closer to your own, a reviewer will notice — and it weakens the whole submission. A strong appeal doesn’t just find a few low outliers; it shows that your home’s assessment is out of step with the broader, honest pattern of comparable homes around it.

How Morganwell builds this from public records

When you search your home, we pull the same public assessor data the county itself works from, and apply the same filters the Board’s guidance describes: same township, same class code, similar size and age, and proximity to your block. We compute building assessed value per square foot for your home and for the comparable set, so you can see exactly where your home sits relative to its neighbors — not just a hand-picked few, but the honest pattern across genuinely similar properties.

If that comparison doesn’t show a gap worth appealing, we tell you that directly instead of building a packet that wouldn’t hold up. If it does, your evidence packet gives you the comparable-homes table, each comp’s PIN and address, and the per-square-foot math — ready to attach to your appeal.