If there’s an open house in my neighborhood, I’m usually there to check it out. I want to see what people think their houses are worth, and what I think it’s worth. I also want to compare their house, inevitably, to mine. So now that the summer housing market is heating up, I can’t help but look up what the house around the corner is going for, just one day after the for sale sign went up on the lawn.
There’s a neat tool that one of my friends told me about, and although it’s totally on the up and up, I sometimes feel a tad guilty when I use it. It’s on the Champaign County website, under the county assessment office. There, you can find out what any person in Champaign County paid for their house. You can look it up by address or by taxpayer name. It’s fun to see what local celebrities paid for their McMansions. For instance, University of Illinois football coach Ron Zook — who recently sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field while reading the words from a card — paid a little more than $900,000 for his home in tony Southwest Champaign.
While it feels kind of funny to look this stuff up, it’s all public record. And it can be very useful when you are looking to buy or sell a property, especially if you decide to forgo contracting a realtor.
5 responses so far ↓
Mark J. // June 8, 2007 at 1:14 pm
It’s really amazing how comparatively inexpensive the McMansions are here. A doctor built one near us (in Charleston) that is at least 7500SF. It has a 3BD, 2.5BA apartment in the walkout basement, I assume for an inlaw. The house cost a tad under $1mil. The same house in Massachusetts would have been closer to $5mil, depending on location. If you make major bucks, like Zook, you can truly live like a king out here.
Cynthia // June 8, 2007 at 7:59 pm
oh man, is that thing fun! My realtor friend also mentioned zillow.com which gives you an estimate of value as opposed to just the last sale price/assessment…..
Leeanthro // June 9, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Wow, what fun! My husband and I just looked up the houses on our street and also some of our friends. We’re so nosy too! Great to see what other proerties on our street are worth!
Jennifer B. // June 9, 2007 at 2:05 pm
It’s amazing that all of this information is there for the taking! I just checked to see if McLean County had such a monster, and while I could use the system to find the same kind of numbers it’s NOWHERE near as comprehensive and easy as the Champaign County site.
I was actually going to go out and enjoy my day, but now I think I’ll tinker on this site for a bit and find the highest-priced homes in town.
I do wonder if the average person knows this information is out there in an easy-to-search format; something tells me some people would be a bit…unnerved…if they did.
Mark J. // June 10, 2007 at 2:35 pm
A colleague of mine once searched that site and said a certain sandwich shop owner had the most expensive house in the area. Can’t verify that, though.
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