Illinois property taxes at $5K are higher than 5 states combined
Illinoisans paid the second-highest property tax rate in the U.S. in 2022, with the median Illinois homeowner spending more than taxpayers in Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and South Carolina combined. See how your county compares.
Illinoisans paid a median $5,055 in property taxes in 2022, the second-highest rate in the U.S. and meaning homeowners shelled out nearly 2% of the value of their homes to support government.
That Illinois median of $5,055 was also more than double the national property tax bill of $2,457. Topping the tax bills at $8,609 was Lake County in the northeast corner of Illinois. The lowest at $694 was Pulaski County, at the far southern tip of the state.
Steve Mandell is a Lake County homeowner and lifelong Illinoisan. After retirement, Mandell started his own real estate business, rehabbing waterfront homes for new buyers. Now he says the property taxes are growing faster than homeowners can afford.
“The property taxes on nearly every home I oversee went up at least 20 to 30% during this last quadrennial assessment and some higher than that,” Mandell said. “The taxes for my home alone went from $8,000 to $13,500.”
“I’m not going to lose my house because my property taxes go up. But do I have friends who are in that position? Yes, and there are a lot of other people that clearly can’t afford what’s happening.”
Lake County homeowners paid the most statewide and ranked among the top 1% of property taxpayers in the nation.
Homeowners in Cook County and each of the collar counties around it paid more in median property taxes in 2022 than the typical homeowner living in California’s Orange County, Los Angeles County or San Diego County.
Overall, eight Illinois counties ranked among the 100 most expensive for property taxes in the U.S. Check the table below to see how much homeowners in your county paid:
“When I was younger and buying my first home, taxes weren’t a major driver in my decision,” Mandell said. “But over the last 30 years, it has become a decision point in whether people buy a house because almost every time a new bill comes out, it goes up.”
“It happens all the time, too,” Mandell said. “People get stuck in a situation where they can’t pay the taxes on their home and they can’t sell the house, and so the third option is for the local government to take it away.”
“If I didn’t have this business, I would have left a long time ago because of these property taxes,” Mandell said. “At this point, probably half of my friends have moved away due to taxes and the politics here.”
Census data shows homeowners living in every one of Illinois’ 39 border counties would see their property tax bills reduced by moving across the state line into a similar value home. On average, these homeowners would have saved about $1,595 in property taxes in 2022, the most recent data available for all 102 Illinois counties.
Homeowners in 18 of the border counties would have seen their median property tax bill cut in half by moving to a neighboring county across the state line. Will County homeowners stood to save the most – $3,035 – by moving across the border to Lake County, Indiana.
In Illinois, a homeowner’s property tax bill is based on two primary factors: the assessed value of your property and the amount of revenue your local taxing districts requests to operate the next year.
Schools receive most of the property taxes – nearly two-thirds across Illinois. Illinois has nearly 7,000 local government units with the power to demand property taxes, far more than any other state.
These local entities, from airport authorities to forest preserves to fire-protection districts, all levy property taxes that are layered atop one another – making the total property tax bill for Illinoisans more expensive and less transparent.
“The property taxes in Lake, DuPage and Cook County are increasing exponentially and it’s a huge windfall for these villages and counties and townships,” Mandell said.
“What I don’t understand is where all that money goes. I don’t feel like the core services in my community have improved from paying more taxes.”
A growing share of property taxes have gone to government pensions, which continue eating more school and local government resources. Illinois ended the 2023 fiscal year with an estimated $211 billion in unfunded state and local pension liabilities.
That is about half of what we need on-hand today, leaving Illinois with the nation’s worst funding ratio and biggest pension debt. It is at a level between what experts warn is “deeply troubled” and “past the point of no return.”
Illinois homeowners paid more in median property taxes in 2022 than the typical homeowner in Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana and South Carolina combined.
Think property taxes don’t matter to you because you rent? Wrong. Landlords pass on property tax costs through higher rent, so property taxes can significantly impact the affordability of housing for both homeowners and renters.
“I think these pensions are strangling the state and our taxing bodies don’t see anything wrong with it. These local governments don’t run their budgets like you or I would run a house,” Mandell said. “They think local governments have infinite taxing power.”
“But these taxes have significant impacts on peoples’ lives and we are to the point where people are just leaving the state.”
“It’s sad. I was an unabashed cheerleader for this state and Chicago for years. I would tell people that Chicago, other than the weather, was the best city in the world,” Mandell said. “Now, I have three sons and I would never encourage them to stay.”
Illinois has lost population for 10 years in a row – a total loss of 548,916 people and most because of moves to other states. Over 50% of Illinois voters polled cited high taxes as the main reasons why they would move out of state if given the chance. Lawmakers need to act now to curb these costs for the future and incentivize more Illinoisans to stay.
A “hold harmless” pension reform plan, such as one developed by the Illinois Policy Institute and based loosely on bipartisan 2013 reforms, could help eliminate the state’s unfunded pension liability and reduce homeowners’ property tax payments over time while providing retirement security for pensioners.
With nearly 3-in-5 Illinoisans believing the value of public services they receive are not worth the property taxes they pay, lawmakers should be pursuing structural reforms that will keep Illinoisans in Illinois.
“I think we as homeowners need to be more aware and ask more questions when it comes to our property taxes,” Mandell said. “Somebody has to become fiscally responsible in terms of managing our money. It’s our money, and I think it’s gotten way out of hand.”