Homer Glen?

[suade907]

[mod cut] I have a 2200 sqft ranch in Rolling Glen subdivision near beautiful Messenger woods. We are well water as well. I just got my tax bill today and it's $5200.00 If you ask me that's pretty steep and it went up 200 from last year and the assessed value went up 11.6%. I don't understand how they can raise the assessed value when the entire countries property value has dropped up to 18%. [mod cut]

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[vester72]

Homer is a great area, taxes are high everywhere in the SW burbs but the water I am not sure about. If water is a huge concern, invest in a sprinkler system with a drip system for any trees - they are very, very efficient and will pay for itself in 2-3 years - all savings after that.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by suade907

[mod cut] I have a 2200 sqft ranch in Rolling Glen subdivision near beautiful Messenger woods. We are well water as well. I just got my tax bill today and it's $5200.00 If you ask me that's pretty steep and it went up 200 from last year and the assessed value went up 11.6%. I don't understand how they can raise the assessed value when the entire countries property value has dropped up to 18%. [mod cut]

[mod cut]

Here is the deal. The assessor plays a little game of "guess-timate". Odds are there is no way in heck you'd really sell your 2200 sq. foot house for anything close to what the "assessed valuation" is -- you'd probably ASK and get A LOT more than the number on your bill.

I am quite sure that there is also NO WAY that the value of ALL the properties in the county have fallen 18%. The number you are almost quoting is the AVG SELLING PRICE. That is a function of the kind and number of properties that have changed hands...

Also keep in mind the numbers on your bill are for 2007 -- I have little reason to doubt that if you would have tried to sell you place for what was your "assessed valuation" in 2006 that number was even a bigger gap than the price now that you've been jumped by 11.6% ...

The $200 more that you are paying represents a very modest 3% or so rise on $5200 -- since that is less than inflation (which is a good, but far from perfect benchmark of the various increases in levies that the schools, towns, county, park, mosquito, etc impose) I'd say you are getting a pretty far deal...

To put this another way the real increased tax collections that I am sure all the taxing bodies are getting is far greater than 3% -- that is being supported by the LARGE rise in new construction and other properties that have gone from maybe some tiny fraction of a modest tax bill for farm land to maybe some brand new house with taxes much larger than what you are paying. The rise in that case would be in the HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of percentages...


The most proactive thing that you can really do is find home like yours that are assessed at a more smalled valuation and file appeal to have your assessed valuation reduced.

A more troublesome effort you can try and undertake is to go to the various public bodies and tell them to stop increasing their spending. Somehow I don't think that is going to go far...

A third thing you can do is keep hoping that A LOT more new stuff gets built by use that DOES NOT require much investment by the schools, towns, county, etc... Encourage neighbors to pretty up their places, add bedrooms they'll never use and pave their yard with gold

[chet6635]

if you do the research the taxes go up in your district every year because homer- lockport- crest hill schools are very bad. they never come close to meeting the no child left behind standardized test scores so they must hire more staff to help meet the requirments. the only school southwest of chicago that have never failed the federal standards are lincoln way and sandburg so if u want good schools go to orland or the lincoln way district.

[chitowner]

Homer taxes and water are totally ridiculous.I never worried about a water bill in my life until I moved to Homer. We would get a $150/mo. bill for normal 3 person usage w/o sprinklers .We couldnt believe it.Our neighboors would pay $300 /mo. with sprinklers.

As for prop. taxes ,they increased 5%/yr. like clockwork. Homer still dosent have its own police,the schools are always looking for more money,which gets voted down every election. No large store chains will build there.Meirer was supposed to build there in 2005 but pulled the plug.

We finally had enough and moved to Orland ,and couldn't be happier.

[kevin444]

I know excatly what you are saying, I live on 179th in the back and my taxes went up 700.00 this year. Mine are now 5900.00

[kevin444]

Lincoln way taxes are alot higher than homers. I have family in that district and they all pay 10,000 to 15,000 on homes in the 350 to 500 range. It might be a better district but its just like the rest of them, extremely overcrowded. They are building their 4th high school now.

[Expertcamper]

Originally Posted by chet6635

if you do the research the taxes go up in your district every year because homer- lockport- crest hill schools are very bad. they never come close to meeting the no child left behind standardized test scores so they must hire more staff to help meet the requirments. the only school southwest of chicago that have never failed the federal standards are lincoln way and sandburg so if u want good schools go to orland or the lincoln way district.

LTHS doesn't meet NCLB because of their disabled students and minority (black) population that comes from the failing Fairmont elementary district in Lockport. LTHS is a great school that offers excellent Advanced Placement opportunities and routinely has hundreds of students who win academic recognition like NHS and national merit scholars. Homer 33C routinely meets AYP in every category, they are excellent schools and check out their report card, they score on par with Naperville area schools on the test scores. Now I would avoid Crest Hill and Lockport elementary schools, but there are 7 different elementary schools in the area so you have do to your homework. Dist. 91 and 92 are both excellent as is 33C. The rest I would avoid.

As for water bills, I have a family of 4 and our water usage is around 5,000 to 6,000 gallons a month. We have a swimming pool. Our water bill has never been higher than $120 a month and that was during the drought of 2005. All those folks complaining about $300 water bills were watering their lawns 3 days a week. My regular monthly bill is about $98 to $105 depending on usage. Is that higher than Chicago? Yes, but I don't live in Chicago, and that's a trade-off I'm willing to take. My tax bill is $6,400 a year. I have a 4 bedroom home on 1/2 acre in a very nice subdivision. 70% of the tax bill goes towards the schools. There are alot of reasons for the high taxes in the area but it's not the schools anymore than in other areas. If you do the comparisons you will see it's a combination of factors but don't blame the schools.