Chicago-area Property Taxes Take a Bigger Bite than Taxes Almost Anywhere Else

Chicago Property Taxes Take a Bigger BiteThere are a lot of reasons to love living in Chicagoland. But when it comes to property taxes, there are an awful lot of places to love more.

In fact, according to a new report, Chicago area homeowners are paying bigger property tax bills on average, than homeowners in 93%  of 1,414 counties across the rest of the country.

Report Surveys Property Taxes in 6 Chicago Area Counties

The April 2018 report from Attom Data Solutions compared counties with at least 10,000 single-family homes and showed that homeowners in Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Cook and Will counties had average tax bills higher than 93% to 99% of the counties in the study.

The report showed that nationwide, the average property tax bill on a single-family home was $3,399, while in Cook County that figure was $5,964. It was even worse in Lake County, where the average tax bill was $8,990, higher than all but 1% of the counties covered in the report.

A senior vice president at the Irvine, Calif.-based property database company noted that of those six Illinois counties, all but Will and McHenry counties lost population in 2017 and those counties did not add any net new residents.

But before you let high property taxes chase you out of your home, make sure your property is not one of the many homes being overtaxed because of an assessed value that is too high.

A Regressive System and a Massive Tax Shift

Recent reports have repeatedly documented a regressive system in Cook County that leads to what one study calculated was a $2.2 billion shift in taxes from properties that were under-assessed to hundreds of thousands of the county’s lowest-value homes.

An assessment that is too high means your taxes will bear a greater share of tax hikes as both city and county taxing authorities struggle with the effects of underfunded pension plans and other costs.

The only way to ensure you’re not paying more than your fair share in taxes, once you’ve applied for all eligible exemptions, is to appeal your property assessment every year. Appealing your taxes with the Cook County Assessor’s Office and the Cook County Board of Review could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars on future tax bills.

Let Us Help You Obtain a Smaller Tax Bill

At Kensington, we use a proprietary algorithm to determine whether your assessment is too high, based on an evaluation of closely matched properties in your neighborhood. And we don’t recommend an appeal unless we find grounds for significant savings. Contact us for a free evaluation of your property tax situation and stop paying more than you should.

Get Your Free Property Tax Reduction Estimate

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