Find potentially vacant properties

Chicago Cityscape integrates various datasets that help members assess the likelihood that a property is vacant. Members may want to know if a property is vacant so they can target it to reduce blight in an area, redevelop it, or point new businesses to its location for potential occupation.

Vacant property methods

1. Vacant land. The Cook County Assessor has a property classification that is assigned to lots that have no structures on them (property class 1-00).
2. Vacant buildings via tax appeals. Property owners can petition the Cook County Assessor to reduce a property's assessed value based on it being partially or fully vacant.
3. Vacant building reports. People can report to 311 buildings they believe are vacant and unoccupied and which may need boarding up to secure it from unauthorized use.

1. Vacant land

Use Property Finder in Address Snapshot and Place Snapshot to filter for properties with the property class "Vacant land (1-00)" by following the instructions in another Knowledge Base article.

Note that it may take a couple property assessment cycles (up to three years) for the information that a lot is newly vacant to make its way to the Cook County Assessor (CCA) database.

Vacant land statistics

• In Chicago, as of the 2021 property tax year, there were 18,952 properties in our database marked by the CCA as vacant land, totaling 4.91 square miles.
• In Cook County outside Chicago, also in the 2021 property tax year, there were 772 vacant lots, totaling 1.08 square miles

2. Vacant buildings via tax appeals

The Cook County Assessor (CCA) has a public policy defining how property owners can request a review of their property after providing evidence that documents the occupancy status of a property and the reason it has partial or full vacancy. If the CCA office agrees with the petition and supporting evidence, then the office will reduce the assessed value of the property.

• Residential property appeals for vacancy may only be granted due to a casualty (residential properties are buildings with 1-6 units, or is a condo).
• Commercial property appeals for vacancy can be granted because of a casualty or after the owner has made a good faith effort to lease the property but hasn't been successful.

Reducing the assessed value of a property can sometimes result in a lower property tax bill, but whether that happens is based on factors outside of the CCA office's control (the total county tax levy in a given year, and how many other properties of a similar type also got reductions in assessed values).

How to find these properties

Chicago Cityscape members can easily find properties that the CCA has granted a reduction in assessed value due to vacancy by using one of Property Finder's special filters. The special filter is only available within Place Snapshot, where members can identify these properties in small or large areas (i.e. ZIP codes, community areas, and Personal Places).

1. Open a Place Snapshot
2. Click on the "Property Finder" button.
3. After the Property Finder filters appear, look for "Special filters" and click on "Vacant buildings".
4. Click "Apply filters". The spreadsheet and map will update after a moment.

Each property in the map and spreadsheet now has a blue label with the text "vacancy appeal" followed by a reason code that the CCA assigned that property's appeal.

Reason codes

Chicago Cityscape last updated this information in January 2022 with data showing appeals granted for the 2020 property tax year. The list has 8,189 properties that received reductions in 2020 in their assessed values due to the following six reasons:

• This is the result of the partial occupancy of your property. (reason code 5)
• This is the result of the partial occupancy of your property along with an income, market or cost analysis (reason code 6)
• This is the result of the total vacancy of your property. (reason code 7)
• This is the result of the total vacancy of your property along with an income, market or cost analysis. (reason code 8)
• This is the result of the vacancy of your property and the removal of the Incentive due to Continuous Substantial Vacancy. (reason code 72)
• This is a result of a One-Year Only reduction due to vacancy; Incentive not applied due to non-compliance of Incentive requirements. (reason code 74)

3. Vacant building reports

Chicago Cityscape has integrated three types of reports that people submit to the City of Chicago's 311 system:

• fly dumping
• flooded basements
• vacant buildings

The 311 dataset that the City of Chicago provides us and the public does not get updated to indicate if the report was confirmed by a city worker so all reports shown on Chicago Cityscape are unsubstantiated; additionally, not all incidences of the three types are reported.

How to show vacant building reports

1. In Address Snapshot and Place Snapshot, scroll down – or use the table of contents to jump down – to "311 Reports".
2. Click the "Load 311 reports" button.
3. Locate the filter titled "Show a single report type:" and click on the link named "Vacant/abandoned building". The map and spreadsheet will update to show only reports of that type.