Falling loop values push Chicago tax burden onto homeowners
Story by Wellbeing Whisper • 3h
What happens when the heart of a city begins to falter? In Chicago, the answer is now arriving in the form of property tax bills that are leaving many residents aghast. The median residential bill in the city leaped by 16.7% to $4,457 the steepest percentage increase in at least three decades, according to a new analysis from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas. The cause lies miles away from many affected homes: the Loop’s commercial property market, still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
The Loop, long the city’s economic engine, saw its commercial property values fall by $379.2 million, or 7.2% last year. Office towers, retail spaces, hotels and restaurants have been battered by high vacancy rates, hybrid work patterns and investor caution. As those values sank, so did the tax revenue they generated falling from more than $1.1 billion to $992.4 million. In a “zero-sum” property tax system, as Pappas put it, “When the Loop gets a cold, the rest of the city gets pneumonia.” With less coming from downtown commercial owners, the burden shifted sharply onto homeowners.
The shift has landed hardest in neighborhoods that could least afford it. Many of them majority Black and poorer, bills soared well beyond the citywide median increase on the South and West sides. West Garfield Park’s median bill surged by nearly $2,000, a 133% jump. In North Lawndale, it rose about $1,900, or 99%. In Englewood, bills climbed 82.5%, or roughly $609. Those spikes were in part driven by rising home values in areas that had only recently regained pre-Great Recession levels, combined with fewer homeowners filing appeals to challenge assessments.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/falling-loop-values-push-chicago-tax-burden-onto-homeowners/ar-AA1Snotc?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=69400a5ff20746e2860521639b139257&ei=87
