CHICAGO | General Discussions

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

If your property taxes have increased 100% in a year (an incredibly infrequent occurrence), you just gained a ton of equity in your house because the value must have exploded. Same situation we see in gentrifying areas, should be the same reaction.

Sorry, but this is an incredibly ignorant statement from an economic standpoint, especially for rental property. And even for a home, just not true, Illinois’ financial situation considered...

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I just looked at the property we're closing on again. It increased 10% from 2020 to 2021 but there was a decrease the period before. From 2017 to 2021 it increased about 6.5%. Another property we were bidding on but dropped out of also increased about 10% from 2020 to 2021. It had a 20.2% increase from 2017 to 2021 (not small, obviously..not saying otherwise).


If you are going to claim that places are increase 100% in property taxes in just 1 year (or even 2 years) for residential properties (homes, condos, etc) then at least come handy with an address that anybody can look up the tax history to back up your claims. What's an address we can look up that's a residential property (not commercial) that has increased that much in a year in Chicago?


Furthermore, did I not make myself clear last time that I think increasing property taxes are not a good thing or did you just conveniently skip that part of what I was saying? I can have this opinion and still ask you for evidence of residential properties' property tax increasing 100% in just a year.

Yeah, I’m going to divulge the addresses of my personal investments You’re something else..... As if I don’t have better things to do than make this up.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Yeah, I’m going to divulge the addresses of my personal investments You’re something else..... As if I don’t have better things to do than make this up.

I completely missed that message first of all - should be obvious as I never quoted it. You stated it's a rental property - is that not characterized as another property class? I'm talking about homes and individual condos right now. That is what the vast majority of people own.

I do feel for some commercial property owners though with the recent increases. Now THAT is shitty.

Oh and let me just leave this here because you just conveniently left this out while trying to claim I think rising property taxes is actually a good thing. I don't think this is good, at all and I specifically stated that. if you cannot comprehend these few sentences of mine then I don't know what to tell you:

Originally Posted by marothisu

..


I don't disagree with you though about increases in general. And I agree with the poster I quoted. If Illinois could get the property taxes lowered and stabilize them then that's a good thing. I do not think that rising property taxes are a good thing especially when they are already high.

[Investing In Chicago]

Guys, the property tax situation is completely fucked in Chicago, i've mentioned this several times here. My personal residence in Lakeview went from like $25K in property taxes to $47K in the matter of a couple years. This isn't my property below, but a very similar comp, and we know the owners as we lived a block away. Look at their property tax bill, ours was worse than theirs for some reason.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...3_M86369-69413

My rental properties in Chicago have had the same thing happen, massive increases over the past couple years, while the useless mayor talks about not raising rents and how the landlords are the bad guys.

I spoke to my real estate attorney, and he told me he expects another 75% increase in property taxes over the next 7 years. The city is fucked. Broke. and needs the middle class and wealthy people to bail out the city. I also love how Blaine Elementary asked everyone in our neighborhood for a $20K donation to cover expenses. What the fuck are my property taxes doing?

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I completely missed that message first of all - should be obvious as I never quoted it. You stated it's a rental property - is that not characterized as another property class? I'm talking about homes and individual condos right now. That is what the vast majority of people own.

No, it's not.

[Investing In Chicago]

Another family I know in our old neighborhood who recently sold partially because of property taxes.

They appealed their property taxes, hence why they went back down, but the city will raise them again, and make the owner pay an attorney to appeal again in a few years. It's a racket.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M76648-97118

[Chi-Sky21]

Well not sure what you expect with something valued at 3 million. I don't know, maybe don't buy it if you can't afford it.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

Well not sure what you expect with something valued at 3 million. I don't know, maybe don't buy it if you can't afford it.

What a stupid post. Here is what I expect, a property tax bill that doesn't 2x over the course of a handful of years with zero increase to assessed value, you know, like almost every other functioning city in the country? How is the value of the home relevant? Who said anything about the ability to afford the tax bill? Like I said, dumb ass post;

[Chi-Sky21]

Well I live in Cook and have a nice house and i know what I pay. Seems pretty foolish for someone to think something valued up to 3 million would only be paying 25k. You should have known what was coming in my opinion. Only acceptable excuse is if it just recently shot up in price. But i highly doubt it has gone up THAT much that fast.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

Well I live in Cook and have a nice house and i know what I pay. Seems pretty foolish for someone to think something valued up to 3 million would only be paying 25k. You should have known what was coming in my opinion. Only acceptable excuse is if it just recently shot up in price. But i highly doubt it has gone up THAT much that fast.

The assessed value hadn't changed on our house the entire time we lived there, the reason for the nearly 2x increase is the incompetence and corruption of the people running the city and state. As I already stated, it's the uncertainty that was the final straw for me - as I was told I should anticipate a $75k tax bill on my home in the near future. The city has no other options but to squeeze residents. That was enough for me, and I know i'm not alone as many of our neighbors who experienced similar tax increases left the city.

It really is shocking to me that so many Chicagoans are ok with what is going on in the city.

[marothisu]

I'd like to think most people know that the property taxes in Chicago are a little bit messed up..

[sentinel]

.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I'd like to think most people know that the property taxes in Chicago are a little bit messed up..

It's a lot messed up and probably illegal. The formula is the city overtaxes the property owner, the property owner appeals the taxes (which you can't do every year), taxes get lowered, and property owner has to pay the law firm who is (probably) kicking back to the city somewhere. The process makes zero sense and is one big racket.

[Chi-Sky21]

I should also say when i say i have a nice house it is still 1/6th the cost of yours! I got 2 rugrats though that cost me a lot.... BUT with what i pay in taxes if multiplied it out it comes out more than what your taxes are. But yes I can see your shock if that is what it has always appraised at. I guess I should not complain about mine going up 2k then........

[left of center]

Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago

It's a lot messed up and probably illegal. The formula is the city overtaxes the property owner, the property owner appeals the taxes (which you can't do every year), taxes get lowered, and property owner has to pay the law firm who is (probably) kicking back to the city somewhere. The process makes zero sense and is one big racket.

This is baked into the system. A lot of lawmakers, both local and in Springfield, have very close ties to property tax attorneys. Hell, Madigan is one. When the ones who make the rules profit from a dysfunctional system, it stays in place.

This whole method is very economically inefficient. It would make a lot more sense for the county to not have to have such large jumps in AV, and rather have much small increases for all properties annually. Small increases means much fewer appeals, which cost the county and state money to review. The county/state/municipality would still pull in roughly the same amount of property tax funds (as most small increases would go un-appealed) and property owners would not need to spend 25-40% of the "tax savings" on these attorneys that really do not provide a benefit to society, unless you count campaign contributions.

[RockfordSoxFan]

My goodness. Sometimes I forget just how cheap housing/taxes in Rockford is vs other areas of the country/state. I read your comments and think to myself, how do working class people even afford that? The discrepancy even within our state is unreal. I wish I had county by county numbers to look at vs state by state averages. Thanks for posting those charts. Very interesting.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by left of center

This is baked into the system. A lot of lawmakers, both local and in Springfield, have very close ties to property tax attorneys. Hell, Madigan is one. When the ones who make the rules profit from a dysfunctional system, it stays in place.

This whole method is very economically inefficient. It would make a lot more sense for the county to not have to have such large jumps in AV, and rather have much small increases for all properties annually. Small increases means much fewer appeals, which cost the county and state money to review. The county/state/municipality would still pull in roughly the same amount of property tax funds (as most small increases would go un-appealed) and property owners would not need to spend 25-40% of the "tax savings" on these attorneys that really do not provide a benefit to society, unless you count campaign contributions.

Why does there need to be a small increase annually? Why not just base property taxes off the assessed value, assuming it's accurate (big assumption).

I obviously can't speak for every property owner, but I sold my home for the exact same amount I paid for it 7.5 years earlier. The assessed value of my house didn't really change much in the time I owned it, yet my tax bill nearly doubled.

[the urban politician]

^ Don’t waste your time, IIC

[LouisVanDerWright]

Lol part of why the building I just bought was so cheap is that the bloodsuckers in City Hall raised the taxes from $8k to $35k between 2018 and 2021. The building literally only made $9k/mo in total rents. In what world is it feasible to be charging derelict industrial properties 1/3 of their gross income in property tax?

Of course I'm going to do the appeals thing as well, but how can anyone be surprised when rents go up up up when this city is bilking property owners with obscene tax bills.

[BrinChi]

^^ I guess I don't see the issue? ~40K in taxes on a 3 million dollar home is a 1.33% rate, which is high but below the current Illinois average posted above. 2% is the upper limit in my opinion... once we see more than 2% that does not bode well for the city and state. I agree with the sentiments above where I would gladly trade a higher income tax rate (or switch to graduated) for a capping of property tax rates.