Author Topic: Illinois has second highest property taxes in the nation and soon to be #1.  (Read 3018 times)

clarkfan1979

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I grew up in Lake County, IL and the article has Lake County listed as the highest property taxes in Illinois, based on a percentage of the home value. I wonder how Lake County ranks in the nation?

My dad was taxed out of his house. He bought it for 145K in 1989. He had to sell in 2007 because the taxes were 12,000/year. He sold for 450K and probably put 150K into the house. His monthly property tax bill of $1,000 was more than his mortgage only.   

There doesn't seem to be any relief after the house is paid off because of the large tax bill.

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/story/home-is-where-the-hurt-is-how-property-taxes-are-crushing-illinois-middle-class/

effigy98

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Will start having a similar problem near Seattle. It should be based on actual cost of the services it is supposed to go to, not the value of my house.

Axecleaver

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Same problem in NY state. Your dad's property tax (12000/450000) was $26.66 per thousand. That high compared to rates in North Carolina and Tennessee , but it's low compared to upstate NY tax rates. Our counties pay for Medicaid, which means poor counties with more people on Medicaid end up with very high property tax rates.

This is a few years old, they're about 6-10% higher today.
http://www.empirecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PropertyTax2013.pdf

New York's highest was Binghamton at $58.28. That report breaks down top 20 rates by region, all of them are in excess of $32 per thousand. Practically, what this means is that younger families cannot afford to buy a house here and older folks cannot retire here. There's a well documented youth flight out of the state. Businesses can't get younger workers, or afford the property taxes, so they leave for states with better deals or negotiate tax abatements, which requires governments to fundraise from people who haven't left yet, and that accelerates the process. All of this suppresses property values.

We won't see progress on this front until state and local governments find a way to contain property tax increases, and that means controlling their budgets. Budgets are pressured by public employee and public service (firefighter, police, teacher's unions) pensions and benefits.

infogoon

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A big part of the issue here in Western New York is endless duplication of services. Many states have one school district per county. Erie County, where I live, has 29. That's 29 separate administration structures, bus fleets, IT departments, maintenance departments, and on and on and on. There are small towns with three or four different school districts in them. It's insanity.

Sibley

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I live in IL, and am considering buying a house. In Indiana. Now you know why.

teen persuasion

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Same problem in NY state. Your dad's property tax (12000/450000) was $26.66 per thousand. That high compared to rates in North Carolina and Tennessee , but it's low compared to upstate NY tax rates. Our counties pay for Medicaid, which means poor counties with more people on Medicaid end up with very high property tax rates.

This is a few years old, they're about 6-10% higher today.
http://www.empirecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PropertyTax2013.pdf

New York's highest was Binghamton at $58.28. That report breaks down top 20 rates by region, all of them are in excess of $32 per thousand. Practically, what this means is that younger families cannot afford to buy a house here and older folks cannot retire here. There's a well documented youth flight out of the state. Businesses can't get younger workers, or afford the property taxes, so they leave for states with better deals or negotiate tax abatements, which requires governments to fundraise from people who haven't left yet, and that accelerates the process. All of this suppresses property values.

We won't see progress on this front until state and local governments find a way to contain property tax increases, and that means controlling their budgets. Budgets are pressured by public employee and public service (firefighter, police, teacher's unions) pensions and benefits.

Those regions don't align with local definitions.  WNY  locally defines itself as 8 counties: Niagara, Orleans, Genessee, Erie, Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraurus, and Allegeny.

There is definitely youth flight, but it seems more due to lack of jobs in the area.  Our kids go to college, and don't come back home to settle down, they have to leave the area for employment.  The declining population then has to support all those base services. 

Local taxing entities like school districts, towns, villages are doing what they can with effectively shrinking budgets (GAP, tax cap, etc), but you can only cut so much AND absorb more state level unfunded mandates before you have to bust the cap.  The way the tax cap is designed, if any entity in a town(or other unit) breaks the cap, every entity in the unit SHOULD also break the cap.  The local taxpayers receive no tax rebate if any unit breaks the cap, so if one does, everyone gets dinged that year - might as well pile on, so that you all  can reset your budget to at least recoup inflation, and then all stay under the cap for another few consecutive years.  If each entity acts in a vacuum, the cap would be busted each year by another entity that reaches the breaking point.

redcedar

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With so many low cost states with great temperatures, outdoor activities, high speed internet, etc etc etc, why not tell these state governments what your think or their high property taxes by voting with your feet. Bye! Adios! Tax someone else.

In all seriousness, I am sure it's not that easy for everyone. Great job, close family, divorced with kids,etc are all reasons to consider staying. But,you can start planning now to leave at the first point in time that makes sense. 

Jack

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In Atlanta, my house is assessed at $115K and the total taxes this year are about $1370, which works out to about $11.90 per thousand. I'm not complaining!

(That includes a Homestead Option Sales Tax [HOST] credit and a few flat fees that don't depend on property value, so the effective millage rate is different from the legislated millage rate. My next door neighbors' house is assessed at $275K -- which is what mine would be worth if I renovated the kitchen and master bath -- and their effective rate is $11.14 per thousand because the flat fees are a smaller portion of the total.)


seattlecyclone

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Will start having a similar problem near Seattle. It should be based on actual cost of the services it is supposed to go to, not the value of my house.

Two things:

1) In Washington, it is based on the cost of services. The county doesn't set a base tax rate ($x per $1,000) that would cause the revenue to rise and fall with real estate prices. Instead they set a total "levy amount" which is the amount of money they will be collecting from taxpayers. This amount is then divided by the assessed value of all the property in the county to determine what the tax rate will be that year. Multiply that rate by the value of your property to get your tax. If your property value increases at the same rate as everyone else's, your taxes should stay the same. It's even possible for your taxes to go down despite an increase in property values. This happened to me a couple of years ago. I guess my property appreciated less than the county average that year.

2) Our taxes really aren't that high compared to other states. My property taxes are roughly 1% of the assessed value, a fraction of what the OP's dad paid. When you consider that Washington also has no state income tax and Illinois does, I think we're getting a great deal!

clarkfan1979

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Same problem in NY state. Your dad's property tax (12000/450000) was $26.66 per thousand. That high compared to rates in North Carolina and Tennessee , but it's low compared to upstate NY tax rates. Our counties pay for Medicaid, which means poor counties with more people on Medicaid end up with very high property tax rates.

This is a few years old, they're about 6-10% higher today.
http://www.empirecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PropertyTax2013.pdf

New York's highest was Binghamton at $58.28. That report breaks down top 20 rates by region, all of them are in excess of $32 per thousand. Practically, what this means is that younger families cannot afford to buy a house here and older folks cannot retire here. There's a well documented youth flight out of the state. Businesses can't get younger workers, or afford the property taxes, so they leave for states with better deals or negotiate tax abatements, which requires governments to fundraise from people who haven't left yet, and that accelerates the process. All of this suppresses property values.

We won't see progress on this front until state and local governments find a way to contain property tax increases, and that means controlling their budgets. Budgets are pressured by public employee and public service (firefighter, police, teacher's unions) pensions and benefits.

$12,000 in taxes based on $450,000 was based on 2007. I looked up the property taxes today and they are $14,600. That breaks down to $32.44 per 1,000 today.

PencilThinStash

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In Atlanta, my house is assessed at $115K and the total taxes this year are about $1370, which works out to about $11.90 per thousand. I'm not complaining!

I just moved AWAY from Atlanta, TO Illinois. Regardless of the thought bouncing around in the back of my head that I'd like to buy property soon.

I should go sign up for a vasectomy, I'm clearly too stupid to reproduce.