North suburban homeowners seeing biggest property tax increase in 30 years, treasurer’s analysis finds

After months of delay, nearly 1.8 million property tax bills for Cook County home and business owners are landing in mailboxes this week, and many homeowners in the north and northwest suburbs are in for jarring news.

A new analysis from county Treasurer Maria Pappas’ research team found the median residential tax bill there increased by 15.7%, according to the report, “the largest percentage increase in the last 30 years.”

Residential properties in that part of the county are shouldering a greater share of the tax burden thanks to what one analyst termed a “perfect storm.”

Across all of Cook County’s 1.8 million parcels, taxes for 1.3 million homeowners and 94,000 commercial property owners went up, according to the report.

In the south suburbs, the median residential bill increased by 3.9% and the median commercial bill — for properties like offices, stores, warehouses and large apartment buildings — went up by 2%. In Chicago, the median homeowner’s bill went up 3%, while the commercial median bill rose only slightly more, 3.1%.

In all, property taxes across Cook County rose more than $909 million, to $17.6 billion, according to the analysis. That’s 5.4% higher than last year, but below the 8% rate of inflation for 2022.

Taxpayers typically see the biggest changes following reassessments, which happen every three years for different parts of the county.

Bills landing this week are the first to reflect new valuations from county Assessor Fritz Kaegi and appeals to the county’s Board of Review for properties outside the city of Chicago and north of North Avenue. Those second installment tax bills are due by Dec. 1 for all Cook County taxpayers.

How much each taxpayer owes depends on how much their local schools, park districts and governments raised property tax levies; whether the assessed value of their property rose or fell in relation to other homes and businesses after appeals; and whether their property was affected by special tax increment financing districts.

Several factors collided in the north suburbs, leading to the higher bills, according to Hal Dardick, a former Tribune reporter now at the treasurer’s office. He led the analysis along with Todd Lighty, another former Tribune reporter now working for Pappas.

COVID-19 adjustments Kaegi’s office made in 2020 reduced values by about 10%. That adjustment no longer applied to this round of assessments. At the same time, a pandemic-induced hot streak in the housing market boosted sale prices and values. That combination resulted in the assessed values of homes rising by nearly 27.8%, or $3.3 billion, according to the analysis. Commercial values rose by about $767.8 million, or 11.4%.

Appeals also added to homeowners’ share of the property tax burden. Property taxes are a zero-sum game: If commercial owners see their total share of all assessed value drop, then homeowners end up shouldering more — and vice versa.

The county’s Board of Review, which hears appeals to Kaegi’s numbers, “shaved nearly 20% off the total assessed value of commercial and industrial properties set by the Assessor’s Office” in the north suburbs, but granted reductions for “less than 2% the total value of residential properties.”

That shifted more of the burden onto homeowners. When it came time to calculate bills, “had the Assessor’s values not been overturned, about 1% of the tax burden would have shifted from homeowners to commercial properties,” according to the treasurer’s analysis. Instead, “about 3% of the burden shifted from commercial properties to homes.”

Overall, total taxes fell for commercial properties in the northern suburbs by $56 million, or 2.75%, compared with 2021.

Taken together, north suburban taxing bodies also raised their levies by about 6.6% compared with 2021, according to the analysis. (Chicago went up by about 5.4% and the south suburbs increased by about 4.4%.)

“When you combine the reversal of the residential COVID adjustments with the shift of burden from commercial to residential and also take into account the significant levy increases throughout the region, you end up with a perfect storm for residential properties that causes really a once-in-a-generation increase in the burden,” Dardick said.

Wayne Sherman, a 76-year-old retired office equipment salesman and IT analyst, has lived in his 1.5 story, three-bedroom frame home on a corner lot in Park Ridge with his wife for nearly half a century. When he received his assessment notice from Kaegi’s office, he was shocked to see his home value jump 65%. It went from $281,000 the previous year to $500,000.

He went to his local township assessor for help on his appeal, which knocked his home’s value down to about $475,000, according to county records. A follow-up call he placed to the township assessor for other options went unreturned, he said. When he tried again, they did not offer another recourse.

A property tax attorney might have encouraged him to take his case to the Board of Review for an appeal, but Sherman told the Tribune “they’re just looking for money too.”

When he looked up his bill earlier this month, it had jumped: His total for the 2022 tax year is $10,744. The year before, it was $6,532.

That 64% increase was higher than most of his neighbors: The median bill for homeowners in Park Ridge jumped 17% compared with 2022 and stands at $9,773, according to the treasurer’s analysis.

In tandem with his rising assessment, there’s another reason his bill jumped so dramatically. Sherman received two key tax breaks on this bill: the homeowner exemption (for those that use that house as their primary residence) and the senior exemption (for those over 65). But another break that Sherman previously received — the senior freeze — disappeared last year.

Between rising Social Security benefits, retirement savings, “some dividends and investments and taxable accounts,” Sherman said his earnings were a couple of thousand dollars above the $65,000 threshold to qualify for the tax break that freezes equalized assessed values.

That limit is set by lawmakers in Springfield and hasn’t changed since 2017.

Had Sherman received that senior freeze, the assessor’s office said his bill would have been $5,914. If his income falls and he qualifies next year, the base value would return to the $281,000 assessed value from 2021.

Levies set by local property taxing bodies also increased, according to the treasurer’s analysis. While the city of Park Ridge and its library district kept their levy about the same, all of the local school districts there, as well as the park district, raised theirs. So did the Cook County Forest Preserves and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

Sherman says he’s confused and frustrated about why his assessment jumped so much, especially after seeing neighbors with similar homes sell for far less.

“Give me the $500,000, I’m out of here tomorrow, but I’ve had no offers. Obviously I’m not going to sell. I’m probably going to end up here until we both or one of us dies,” he told the Tribune. “I don’t have an unlimited amount.”

Among the suburban communities with the largest percentage increases in median bills for homeowners are Schiller Park, where the median tax grew by 29.7% to $6,387, and Des Plaines, where it grew by 28.7% to $6,067.

Suburban Melrose Park and Northlake faced even bigger hikes, in part because both are split by North Avenue and are assessed separately.

Homes north of North were reassessed at higher levels, while the homes south of the dividing line won’t have new values until next year. That ends up pushing more of the overall tax burden onto northern neighbors. Part of the increase north of the dividing line is the result of an increase of more than 10% in taxes sought by taxing districts in that city.

In Park Ridge, Sherman was blunt in his evaluation of his latest bill: “I don’t mind spending some money when you have to, but this is just greed and stealing without a gun and a ski mask.”

aquig@chicagotribune.com