Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Whose property taxes went up most in Chicago?

Sun-Times:
Four out of five Chicago homeowners will see their property taxes go up when they get their bills later this week, Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan said Monday.

In the West Garfield Park neighborhood, the median tax bill will jump 46.4 percent, the highest spike in the city, according to the numbers compiled by Houlihan's office.

"I think it's outrageous. It doesn't seem fair," said Latonya Nelson, 39, who rehabbed a 100-year-old graystone opposite the park with her husband. "Especially with the economy being the way it is."

The main reason for the higher tax bills is the phaseout of the "7 percent" cap on property tax increases, Houlihan said.

Houlihan's controversial effort -- backed by Mayor Daley -- used a complicated math formula to shield homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods from sudden steep property tax hikes. The formula shielded the first $40,000 of home value from tax hikes and aimed to prevent homeowners' bills from going up more than 7 percent a year.
Read the whole thing! So far this only affects "gentrifying" neighborhoods such as Garfield Park. Check out the chart at the article to see how other Chicago community areas are faring as far as property tax assessments!

UPDATE 11:22 AM The Tribune also has the story:
In Chicago, the median hike in residential bills will be about 3 percent, although the median increase in many neighborhoods will shoot significantly higher than that, a Houlihan spokesman explained.

As with any event involving property taxes, the size of bills and increases can vary dramatically from house to house, block to block and neighborhood to neighborhood. The median tax hike in any community is the middle point of all increases, with about half of homeowners facing higher hikes than the median and half facing less.

Figures provided by Houlihan illustrate how the upward march of property tax bills appears to have largely defied the housing-market crash as well as the steepest economic swoon since the Great Depression.

"This is just a terrible time for this to happen," Houlihan said. "People are really pressed and their bills are going to go up."

Some of the sharpest increases will be felt not by residents in trendy North Shore villages but rather in middle-class communities near O'Hare International Airport. In Franklin Park, the median hike in tax bills payable in 2009 will soar by 20 percent over last year, according to the assessor. In neighboring Schiller Park, the median increase will nudge 18 percent.

In the city, the median increase in the trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood is a modest 3 percent and in the North Side Lakeview neighborhood it will be even less, 2.1 percent. On the flip side, however, the median increase in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side nears 25 percent. The median rise in President Obama's Kenwood neighborhood is 9 percent.
BTW, I got this pdf file from the Tribune showing. I provide that for you here.

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