Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Property Taxes To Decrease For Majority Of Uptown Homes?

There's an interesting look at the property tax increase that was voted in last year in the Sun-Times. According to "The Watchdogs," Chicago homes with market values of less than $250K won't see an increase in property taxes, and may even see a decrease when the first bills go out this summer.
Click to enlarge. Courtesy of The Watchdogs/Chicago Sun-Times
According to the chart above, homes in the 46th Ward have a median value of $179K; homes in the 47th Ward have a median value of $186K; and homes in the 48th Ward have a median value of $130K. All averages fall below the $250K threshold, although the tax increase will be assessed on each home, not on the median values.

One issue not mentioned in The Watchdogs' report is what the effect of the property tax increase will have on renters, since most owners of rental property will pass along the increase to their tenants. (Of course, this isn't applicable to tenants who live in tax-exempt properties, of which there are many in Uptown.)

It should be an interesting summer as soon as the tax bills get delivered. You can see the entire article in the Sun-Times here.

3 comments:

  1. That's a good story, but it doesn't quite explain the larger issue for Uptown. Most condo owners in Uptown probably won't see much of a tax increase. Thousands of studio and 1 bed units nearer the lakefront bring down median and average condo values.

    Now if you're in a newer or larger condo worth say more than 300-350K you will likely see an increase. If you own a SFH you will see an increase. If you own a small or large multi family building you will see an increase. Own commercial property? INCREASE.

    Condo owners may dodge the direct impact of this tax increase, but the majority of people who live in Uptown will pay indirectly through higher rent as will the vast majority of renters in the city.

    Many homeowners/condo owners citywide will dodge the immediate effects of this increase.

    To quote Royko: "Don't tax me. Don't tax thee. Tax that guy behind the tree."

    For the record I support the tax increase and will be paying more. I don't like that, but in the long run it's better that government deal with the budget crisis now than continually borrowing more money at high rates. Pay now or pay more later. No way around that.

    Good thing about a property tax increase on commercial or apartment building owners is that it's an expense that they can write off against income. So say a hypothetical large apartment building saw an increase of 100K a year the real cost after taxes to building owner might be closer to 65K. It's something.

    We also need leaders who are pro development where you can get it. This city desperately needs more people. The development downtown and on the outskirts of downtown helps everyone. The development in Uptown will help everyone. This is not a zero sum game for the city.

    Cappleman and some of the other aldermen understand that. I wish the rest of our "leaders" did.

    I look forward to the Uptown of a few years from now with thousands of new units and people living at Maryville and at the other new developments closer to the EL stop.

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  2. Great if developers spend their own $$$, Irish Pirate. The rest of us did and so are the other developers on Cappleman's list. But $16 mill from the Maryville TIF to a company as loaded as Harlem Irving to make high rises on the best lakefront on the north side? That's exactly the kind of bad financial deal that got us into this budget crisis.

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  3. I am happy to see TIF funds used for development that will bring more to all of us in Uptown, and if Maryville gets it and gives Clarendon Park Fieldhouse a boost, then so be it and good. The Uplift TIF is a joke and is a sponge on the community tax payers who get nothing out of it. So a TIF apparently can work both ways.

    I am not happy with paying more taxes--already as a single unit owner I pay way too much. And the double sales tax whammy by the idiot Preckwinkle only drives people away. Rahm has a lot on his shoulders to bring people and jobs back---the higher taxes do not help.

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