The findings are consistent with those in previous studies comparing property tax rates but come at a time of high anxiety for many property owners: just as Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is reassessing properties in the city of Chicago.
Over the past two years, Kaegi has hiked commercial assessments in suburban Cook County. Many owners of apartment, office and other income-producing properties in the city worry that he’ll do the same thing to them, resulting in big tax increases next year. Recently released figures for Rogers Park suggest those fears may be justified.
The new study found that the 2020 effective tax rate—a property’s tax bill as a percent of its value—was 4.03 percent for Chicago commercial properties worth $1 million or more, versus an average of 1.95 percent for all cities included in the report. Only Detroit was higher, at 4.16 percent.
Chicago’s tax rate is so high because of high spending by local governments, including the city, county and Chicago Public Schools, and because the tax system is structured to shift more of the tax burden onto commercial properties, the report says.
While that’s bad news for landlords, it’s good for homeowners, who carry less of the tax load. Chicago ranks fifth among the 53 cities for a metric used to measure preferential tax treatment for homeowners.
Still, Chicago homeowners can’t be too happy. The city ranks 15th when it comes to effective tax rates on median-value homes. The city’s 2020 rate, 1.54 percent, was slightly higher than the average for all 53 cities, 1.38 percent.
It’s much worse out in Aurora, which had a tax rate of 3.25 percent, according to the report. The city’s tax rate is so high largely because local governments in the western suburb rely heavily on property taxes to finance their operations, the report said.
Aurora residents sick of their taxes and Midwestern winters may fantasize about moving to a low-tax city in a warmer clime. One option: Honolulu, which had the lowest tax rate last year: just 0.31 percent.