Why are property taxes so HIGH North of the City?!?

[tcs1366]

Lookout... dont ya just hate that?!

[Rikki Tikki Tavi]

Its a case of you get what you pay for. Moved last year from Roswell GA. ~$500K house had annual taxes of $1200. Same price (approx same size) house in Naperville (Will) ~$900 per month.

What do you get?

4 seasons
Town trash pickup
Dramatically superior home construction
Cheaper utilities (house in GA averaged $200/mo water bill, $100 sewer bill, $200 electric bill, Naperville one unified bill averaging $130/mo)
Best public library in the country
Quality SCHOOLS (our elementary school kids attended one of the "10 best" public schools in metro Atlanta and the best teachers there don't even come close to the faculty here)
Town golf courses (unheard of in ATL, even though with a dramatically shorter season)
Proximity to a world class city with real culture (museums, arts, dining)
A more integrated society
Dramatically stronger labor pool

And on and on...No contest....its like JV versus Varsity

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Rikki Tikki Tavi

A more integrated society

I just wanted to highlight this one for the people who swear Chicago is a segregated hell hole.

[LhMichelle]

I was looking for homes in Hillside, Illinois (West side suburb of Chicago) found a really nice ranch single family home for $114,900 was very interested until I found out the property taxes was$6458. This is like paying rent and a mortgage. Don't forgot about the exspense to upkeep the house.

[LhMichelle]

Homes are affordable to buy now, but the property taxes will eat your pockets up.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

We need this in Chicago. Though the result in Milwaukee has been that many Catholic schools have now experienced the white flight and decline that were seen in the MPS schools decades ago. My mother-in-law teaches in a Milwaukee Catholic school that gets most of its pupils from the school choice program, and it's a very rough place now with a heavy majority of black students (she may have one white kid in a class and perhaps one Hmong kid). Many of her students have fathers who are in jail, terrible stories of abuse, and no chance for success. It basically just proves that the culture of the inner city will overwhelm any school in the end.

White Flight from Catholic schools? What's left? $20,000/year private schools?

Instead of running and now paying high property taxes AND a private school tuition, why not force your schools to be held accountable?

If new kids are not learning, then flunk them but offer additional assistance in mornings/after school. No social promotions.
If new kids are disruptive, don't accept it. Drag them out by their necks, and expel them if the behavior repeats.
If the teachers are scared of the kids, hire security to do the dragging.
If the teachers are too scared to provide discipline and structure in their classrooms, get rid of the weaklings and milquetoasts, and hire stronger teachers.

Set the expectations for learning and discipline from DAY ONE, and stick to it without fail every day. This requires a strong principal willing to stand behind their teachers and not cave in the first time a parent says "You're picking on my little Johnny because he's Black."

Good schools go bad not because of the influx of bad students, but because the teachers and administrators of the school DO NOTHING. They look the other way and allow the kids to do whatever they want. You think the kids can't pick up on when a teacher is scared of them? Of course they can, and they use that to their advantage.

Yeah I know, the school was used to sitting around and doing nothing, and now I'm asking them to perform some hard work. But the parents didn't make the school do their job - they just packed up and left. So the cycle continues.

Good luck making the mortgage, property tax, AND tuition payments...

[divakat]

You want to live in a good school district for several reasons. First, though you don't have kids, you may choose to in the future and you want to think ahead if you are buying a house that you may be stuck in for a while and cannot sell (gotta think about that in this kind of market). Second, homes in better school districts retain their value than homes in not as good school districts.

You cannot beat the North Shore in terms of beauty in my opinion. I wish I could live there, but my commute does not allow for it, so I am in DuPage County. Evanston is nice but has higher crime and worse high school than the other North Shore communities. I'd stay away from Northbrook and Buffalo Grove, simply because they are just more like "typical" suburbs compared to the North Shore suburbs close to the lake off of Sheridan Road. The ones following Sheridan are breathtakingly beautiful. I looked at Highland Park. You get more for your money because it's a bit farther out, great schools, vibrant downtown area, close to the lake. Yes, higher taxes but it's the trade off to live in the North Shore.

[pvande55]

Lack of commercial property is one reason. Another is that such property is assessed at a higher rate in Cook County. In Lake County it is not, so even a place like Vernon Hills, with lots of commercial, has higher taxes. Of course, per student spending is a factor as well.