Blog
Product updates, civic insights, and local government explainers from the MyTownView team.
Find Comparable Properties and Appeal Your Assessment — Free Tools Inside
The free Property Tax Check tells you instantly if you're over-assessed. The paid comps tool finds the evidence to prove it — comparable properties, appeal strength scoring, and a downloadable PDF report.
Best Suburbs of Chicago to Live In 2026 — Data, Not Opinions
We scored 206 Chicago suburbs across fiscal health and quality of life using real municipal data — crime, taxes, schools, pensions, income, homeownership, and environmental quality. Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Glencoe top the list.
Which Illinois Towns Are Going Broke? A Pension Fund Health Check
Illinois faces a 143.7 billion dollar pension crisis. We analyzed which towns are on the brink and what it means for your property taxes.
Follow Your Town: Stay Updated Without Lifting a Finger
Follow any town on MyTownView with one click. Get email updates on meetings, news, and more. Manage subscriptions from your account page.
Where the Slot Machines Are: Illinois Towns Ranked by Gaming Density
Illinois has nearly 50,000 video gaming terminals. We ranked 529 municipalities by density and revenue per resident. Wilmington tops the list at one slot machine for every 47 people.
Your Town at a Glance: The New Customizable Dashboard
The new Customizable Dashboard lets you pick from 20 widgets, drag to reorder, and save your layout. See exactly the civic data you care about — meetings, crime, finances, schools — at a glance.
How to Compare Illinois Towns Before You Move
Research Illinois towns for free with real government data on taxes, schools, crime, and more. Then compare up to 5 towns side by side across 100+ metrics.
Join the MyTownView Community on Reddit
We launched a Reddit community for MyTownView. Discuss local government data, request features, report bugs, and connect with other Illinois residents who care about what's happening in their towns.
Never Miss What Matters: Custom Alerts for Your Town
Custom Alerts let you define exactly what civic data you care about — meetings, permits, crime, finances — and get emailed the moment something changes. Three creation modes, 14 categories, snooze controls.
244 Illinois Towns, One Dashboard: What We Learned Building MyTownView
We built a civic data platform covering 244 Illinois towns across 5 counties. Here's what surprised us about local government transparency, public data, and the hidden web connecting every community.
Inside the Dashboard: AI-Powered Analytics for Your Community
The MyTownView Dashboard gives you composite scoring, trend analysis, cross-town comparisons, rankings, litigation tracking, custom reports, and grant eligibility tools — all powered by real municipal data.
What Is MyTownView? A Complete Guide to Your Town's Public Data
MyTownView aggregates meetings, finances, crime stats, school data, demographics, and more from government sources into one clean interface — free for every resident.