high property taxes : any way to avoid???

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Some suburbs with a lot of commercial property have lower residential property taxes (like Schaumburg or Oak Brook). I have always noticed that the taxes in Downers Grove trend quite a bit lower than in surrounding communities for some reason. It's really not as simple as county-to-county comparisons.

Downers has significant retail on Butterfield Road: from the Home Depot right off 355 to Finley Square Mall and Butterfield Plaza. Plenty of retail along Ogden too.

Not to mention all the corporate space in DG: all the glittering high-rise office buildings at 355/88 (along Finley) are DG.

[cubssoxfan]

And absolutely atrocious traffic on Butterfield during rush hour

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by cubssoxfan

And absolutely atrocious traffic on Butterfield during rush hour

I work near there and it is pretty bad. It was worse on Highland SB by I-88 when they shut down one lane of the turn to EB-88 ramp it added 10 minutes to my commute.

[Beachgoer44]

Originally Posted by wjj

I don't know if you will ever be able to find reasonable real estate taxes - or taxes in general - in the Chicagoland area without fundamental changes in state government. But that is simply not going to happen, so you need to either get out (or don't come in the first place) or take a deep breath and bear it.

We have a second home in SW Florida and will be making it our principal residence in a year or two. The main reason is that in retirement, Buffalo Grove (Lake County side) real estate taxes are just not sustainable. $13K for a 30+ year old frame tract home. Plus of course, the 5% income tax and 7.5% - 8% sales tax in Lake County (depending on where you are) - and even higher if you shop or eat in Cook County. In South Fort Myers for a slightly smaller home, but only 14 years old with an in ground pool and spa with a 170 foot lake frontage, currently real estate taxes of $4,000 which will drop to $3,200 once we are able to homestead the property. Plus no state income or estate taxes (Illinois still has an estate tax that kicks in well below the federal threshold) and a 6% sales tax. Really a no brainer if one is able to move. And there are many, many other places in the country that are similarly attractive.

But it gets even worse. Our plan was to sell our BG house and buy a smaller townhouse or condo in the area since we will still spend several months a year up here. We foolishly thought we would be able to cut at least our real estate taxes significantly in doing so. NOT! Looking at nicer townhouse communities in BG, real estate taxes were still pushing $10K for the unit itself plus the portion of the HOA fee that goes toward paying RE taxes for the common elements means the out of pocket amount going to RE taxes is very high. We even looked at Prairie Park (very nice condo development) in Wheeling of all places figuring, hey, it's Wheeling so how high can taxes be? Well, the answer is, about the same as in BG.

Illinois has become a typical very high tax nanny state over the last 20 years or so. It will only get worse. Our BG house has significantly declined in value but our RE taxes increased every single year as the dozens of units of government simply increased their rates to make up for the decrease in assessed valuations. Now, watch what happens. Various taxing districts are touting how they are holding the line on rates. But those rates were inflated to offset the decline in property values. So as prices continue to recover, those inflated rates will be applied and RE taxes will sky rocket as home prices get back near pre recession levels. And yet these politicians will be re-elected since they "are holding the line on taxes", while in reality, they are creating large tax increases. Unfortunately, basic math is not something that the general population is particularly skilled in, so the tax increases continue.

Of course, there is more to it than just taxes and people have different priorities in different stages of their life. I would never subject my kids to Lee County FL schools, so while they were in school, paying high taxes to Districts 96 and 125 was acceptable and I viewed it almost like an investment in their future. But they are now over 10 years out of Stevenson and I am in the process of ratcheting down my career, so I now have different priorities which do not include paying sky high RE taxes without seeing much in return.

AMEN to all of that! I live in Franklin County Illinois.....way south if Chicago in a $210000 house with taxes upwards of $6k. I would not recommend anyone move to this State period. It is in a downward spiral.

Interesting that you are moving to Ft. Myers...we have contemplated that exact move for about a year. Specifically, to the Pine Island area. Good luck!

[middle-aged mom]

Township within county also matters.

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by maybetoday

in Chicago area the lower the taxes the worse the schools, or so it seems. I am sure there are exceptions to this. Property taxes are ridiculous here though, for sure.

I don't know about that. I can think of several mediocre school districts that tax similar to better than average districts. At some point, property taxes put a cap on home value appreciation.

Used to be that one could plan for a doubling of taxes every 20 years +/- It now seems to have doubled in the past decade. So many municipalities went nuts during the bubble, building new municipal buildings, parks, replacing pools and adding onto libraries. The tax increases are necessary to service the debt. Then there are the pensions.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

I don't know about that. I can think of several mediocre school districts that tax similar to better than average districts. At some point, property taxes put a cap on home value appreciation.

Used to be that one could plan for a doubling of taxes every 20 years +/- It now seems to have doubled in the past decade. So many municipalities went nuts during the bubble, building new municipal buildings, parks, replacing pools and adding onto libraries. The tax increases are necessary to service the debt. Then there are the pensions.

FIRST there is there is the COMPLETELY OUT OF WHACK PENSION SYSTEM, then there is EVERYTHING ELSE that governmental bodies may wish to do...

The sad fact is that even relatives that are firefighters/ paramedics are increasingly "seeing the light" about what has happened to the pensions -- folks that have NO RIGHT to be part of the pension because they are essentially "management" or "brass hats" as compared to "rank and file" have larded up the pensions with their huge six figure salaries. Given the "light duty" these folks often have of mostly helping the elected officials determine where to play with budget numbers instead of sucking in toxic smoke it is likely these folks with "gold plated" benefits will also live longest in retirement.

It is completely unsustainable and needs to be addressed by a govenor that "gets its" instead of a flunky that refuses to deal honestly with the mess...

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by chet everett

FIRST there is there is the COMPLETELY OUT OF WHACK PENSION SYSTEM, then there is EVERYTHING ELSE that governmental bodies may wish to do...

The sad fact is that even relatives that are firefighters/ paramedics are increasingly "seeing the light" about what has happened to the pensions -- folks that have NO RIGHT to be part of the pension because they are essentially "management" or "brass hats" as compared to "rank and file" have larded up the pensions with their huge six figure salaries. Given the "light duty" these folks often have of mostly helping the elected officials determine where to play with budget numbers instead of sucking in toxic smoke it is likely these folks with "gold plated" benefits will also live longest in retirement.

It is completely unsustainable and needs to be addressed by a govenor that "gets its" instead of a flunky that refuses to deal honestly with the mess...

Yet the unions continue to blindly endorse each and every candidate with a D behind their name. For what? Because they tell them what they want to hear instead of telling them it's a "house of cards"!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by wjj

.... In South Fort Myers for a slightly smaller home, but only 14 years old with an in ground pool and spa with a 170 foot lake frontage, currently real estate taxes of $4,000 which will drop to $3,200 once we are able to homestead the property. ....

May I ask what is the price of your annual home owner's insurance policy for the home in FL? I know of some people in Sarasota, FL area that pay close to 4K/year for their insurance, which seems to be a common price in FL. Still, the price is less than BG, but not by much when insurance cost is added to the mix.

[wjj]

Originally Posted by BigV

May I ask what is the price of your annual home owner's insurance policy for the home in FL? I know of some people in Sarasota, FL area that pay close to 4K/year for their insurance, which seems to be a common price in FL. Still, the price is less than BG, but not by much when insurance cost is added to the mix.

Actually, insurance is not that much different when hurricane insurance is included, and way less if hurricane insurance is excluded. In SFM, my all perils (except hurricane), liability, medical, etc is just under $1,000. In BG, my homeowners is $1,850. Hurricane adds another $999 in SFM, so in total, my coverage in FL is about $150 more than in BG. So not much difference. BTW, I do not have my cars insured with either insurance company so there are no distortions related to discounts for multiple policies.

Homeowners rates in FL really ratchet up the closer to the coast that you live. So $4K would be typical for a home maybe a few miles off the coast. It can get much higher than that for those within a mile of the coast. Our realtor told us that US 41 is a general dividing line where if you live west of 41 in SWFL, insurance rates escalate at a rather fast pace the closer to the coast you get, but if you are east of 41, rates are more reasonable. We are a little east of I75, so several miles from the coast, so it is not too bad.