Property Tax?? (Chicago, Wheaton, East St. Louis: sales, assessor, crime)

[2beamissourian]

I am wondering if anyone has received the new tax bills?

IF so were you in an area with a new school? Was it a increase?

Farm Property? (changes here if any please)

A friend of ours restored a old small school house ..turned it into something other than a eye sore ........and got his tax bill for $8000 he said it was a major increase (more than doubled)

Help .. how can they do this?? Tell me what will happen to Illinois areas that are raising the taxes like this? how can young people afford to buy and old people afford to own?

[HOWELL_STREET]

Dear Friend:

Let's talk about Wheaton, IL regarding taxes. That's because I know the area. New houses are selling for $500K to $1,000,000. They are built on very tiny lots. As a guess, perhaps 1/8 of an acre. Such a house (estimated) has a property tax of approximately $8,000 to about $16,000. That depends upon whether it is located in the town of Wheaton or in the adjacent semi-rural areas of Milton Township. A good majority of your tax bill will be for the local school district. And that could amount to over fifty percent of the total property tax bill.
To build a new house in Wheaton, the building permit now costs $4,000 per house. There is no way to get around that expense.
Increased taxes - - and that will always happen in the future - - is directly in proportion to the 'immigrants' moving into Wheaton. By immigrants, I don't mean International folks. I just mean people moving from one suburb to the next. I like to call that the Domino Effect. It seems that everyone wants to move to the Chicago area suburbs. So more people moving into any town, the higher one's property taxes go.

[mdz]

I would say property taxes are much more likely to be higher based on the schools rather than the immigration rate. As you said it is the biggest chunk. Good school districts (like Wheaton) have much higher tax rates as compared to Chicago.

The other difference is how much business/industry there is in the city or suburb--the more taxes paid by businesses, the less paid by the homeowners. Once again, Chicago comes out ahead on that.

Back to the OP's post--we can only hope that some sort of "grandfathered" property tax cap can be passed. When the housing market went nuts, well, sure, it's nice to know your house went up 25% or whatever in value, but it doesn't do anything for you unless you sell. So then you get your tax bill that's 25% higher. I'm sure your salary didn't go up 25% in that time--mine sure didn't.

You're right, if this keeps up we're all in trouble. The governments do seem to rely heavily on property taxes in this state. Our state income tax is lowish, should that be higher? increase sales taxes? I don't know the answer to this question, but some sort of property tax relief is gonna be needed I think.

[2beamissourian]

I was thinking about this hard last night........if property tax keeps increasing no one is going to be able to afford to live here ..young people wont build new homes ..and ppl will relocate ........... if this happens what will happen to Illinois .we will be a ran down crime state......... our how state could be a simple East St. Louis - now if that dont wake up some eyes something needs to...
that area use to be the up and moving community ... and what happen?

I dont think this tax increase is legit and I think the more they play with our money the more of us will leave.

[HOWELL_STREET]

Yes, I completely agree with your comments. Our United States Government is testing the market to see how far businesses can go in profits. That's caused by the lobbyists soliciting our govenment members.
However, with such an attitude / experiement, once we reach that threshold, we have lost the middle class in our country. Then it is too late, because their is no return for recovery. At that point, we become transients wandering around the country searching for decent employment. Author John Steinbeck had this insight and wrote about it in "The Grapes of Wrath".
If you read the Chicago Tribune Business section, one author tells us the economy is 'great'. The next ariticle talks about soaring gasoline prices, food, and reduction in employment remuneration. That combination will not work forever as people eventually suspect on their own that this is 'hype' to keep the economy from a melt down.
Is it too late for us? I don't know.

[Drover]

There's something of a property tax revolt going on right now in Indy. It's an idea whose time has come.

[gardener34]

Yes our tax bill here in Kane county went way up this year. It mostly goes up every year for the last 13 years. Some years WAY up.

But we live in an area where there are lots of yet undeveloped cornfields that are going to need houses and new schools.

Mostly the money goes to the school district - too much money I say. The schools around here are VERY nice - from someone who came through catholic schools (no frills that's for sure) and got a great education from them - it kind of makes me sick all the niceties they have in these schools nowadays.

[2beamissourian]

a friend of ours .. purchased a pc of run down property .. the town has NOTHING in it and he has been paying 1500 .. he got his tax bill for 8000 this week due in 30 days! How nice was that? ..and it dont include the new school taxes as of yet!

[gardener34]

It seems if you just purchase a property, you are at risk for an extra high property value the next year, because they always reassess when a property is turned over. Ours went up like $1000 the first year we got our taxes. They do mail out the bills in May though, they are due Sept. 1. So they give you a lot of time, NOT 30 days, that is unheard of.
You can contest it with the tax assessor though.
The school taxes are lumped in with everything else into that one bill, park district, etc. I never heard of a separate bill for schools in IL.

[2beamissourian]

its not a seperate bill the tax just was not figured yes on it so it will raise again the following year ........... ours in the past were like you said .. given some time ..we had a newspaper print that said they will mail them out the end of August and they will be due in 30 days.