Why are property taxes so HIGH North of the City?!? (Chicago: sales, rentals)

[geoc]

Wanting to move to Winnetka or Evanston or Wilmette...but property taxes are incredibly high! Do you really get more? (Better schools perhaps--but I have no kids to attend them.) What are we really getting for all that extra $$$???

Any suggestions as to where to live in the North suburbs where taxes are a bit lower?

Does one have to move waaay out to have more reasonable property taxes?

[oakparkdude]

Don't know about the north shore specifically, but surprisingly suburban taxes tend to be higher than city of Chicago taxes. Also, Cook county taxes residential properties at a lower rate than collar counties (Lake, Kane, Dupage, Etc.) I'd suggest looking into a town with a large mall like Skokie or Northbrook. Typically the large amount of sales tax from these malls allows these towns to have lower property taxes.

[middle-aged mom]

The lion's share of property taxes go to the schools. Moving way out will often result in getting a lot more home for the money but not necessarily better taxes.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

The lion's share of property taxes go to the schools. Moving way out will often result in getting a lot more home for the money but not necessarily better taxes.

If you can live with a smallish home in a very nice area that often works out well, as the rates tend to be lower where the avg values are higher.

There are (or perhaps were...) towns in /near the Northshore that do have a less desirable mix of rentals to owner occupied and those taxes can be lower too. Northfield and to some extent Highwood comes to mind.

If you want Lakefront views with much more affordable prices there are towns a bit further north that would fit the bill -- from Kenosha all through the Lake Co suburbs prices are much lower north of Great Lakes / Lake Bluff.

[SJaye]

Has anyone ever done a town-by-town analysis of property taxes vs. education standards to determine if there are places where you "get more for the buck" than others?

[chet everett]

I believe the ratings in the newspapers and various magazines have done these. The toughest thing is that things change, sometimes a little, occasionally a great deal.

Additionally it is very deceptive to compare "average tax rate" & "average home price", almost no houses really have that combination. Especially in towns like Oak Brook (which has some very good schools, and some lowish average tax rates) the major reason for the low rates is the HIGH VALUE of MOST homes -- thus even though the rate is low, it would be very hard to find an affordable home (and some of those might be townhouses, where the home owners association may make it restrictive to have children...).

I know that when the various factors are weighed it is easier to find areas with particularly INEFFICIENT school funding -- areas that have HIGH tax rates and poorly performing schools, but even in such cases MUCH of the tax may very well be to pay off a large bond issue. I know that Elmhurst did massively rebuild York High School, including many features that are valued for the broad recreational use of more than just students (huge indoor pool). Once those bonds are paid off the tax rate could decrease substantially...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

Don't know about the north shore specifically, but surprisingly suburban taxes tend to be higher than city of Chicago taxes.

It's not that surprising when you consider the city has a MASSIVE business sector as part of its tax base that most suburbs simply don't have. Just think about how much property taxes are paid by one skyscraper alone. Multiply by hundreds.

[chitown85]

The North suburbs have very LITTLE commercial or industrial tax base with the exception of Skokie and Evanston. Northbrook doesn't even receive any money from Allstate since its unincorporated Cook, so the county gets all that.

Cook has higher sales tax, collar counties have much higher property taxes. Lake County is the highest property tax burden in IL and used to be one of the highest in the US.

For NW burbs, Schaumburg used to not have any property tax, not really sure if that is the case anymore. NW and SW Cook tend to have lower tax burdens for property.

[cohdane]

There's a movement to decouple property taxes from school funding.

So what happens when (not if) that takes effect? Lower taxes? Lower school performance? Neither? Both?

If you're paying all that money in taxes for better schools, how will the towns justify maintaining the tax rate after the schools have no bearing on the equation?

[Chicago62]

Just looked at house in Palatine tonight and I practically took a swing at the realtor when she told me the 475k house has 10k in taxes a year. Wow, thats 883 a month in taxes