05-05-2025
Property taxes hit low-income areas hard
While office tower values shrank in recent years, homeowners — especially in the city's poorest neighborhoods — paid the price, a new Cook County Treasurer's report says.
Why it matters: The study helps explain why homeowners and renters have seen their taxes and rents rise in recent years, adding to the city's housing cost burden.
From 2021 to 2023 commercial real estate owners saw their property tax bills drop by $3.3 billion, while homeowners took on nearly $2 billion more in taxes.
Yes, but: Those years wreaked havoc on the commercial real estate market as remote work slashed demand for office space. So their lowered valuations and taxes aren't a huge surprise.
By the numbers: The analysis revealed that business property owners appealed their valuations more than twice as often as homeowners.
While business reductions rose to $25.5 billion from 2021 to 2023 (compared with $9.9 billion from 2015 to 2017), assessed value reductions for homeowners declined.
What they're saying: The Board of Review"cut $17.3 billion in commercial property values on appeal, turning $22.5 billion of potential growth into an increase of just $5.2 billion," Cook County Assessor spokesperson Christian Belanger tells Axios.
The other side: The BOR reduced the assessment because "the Assessor has been overvaluing properties," BOR commissioner Samantha Steele tells Axios.
Our "role is to give the taxpayers their due process. … It's time for the Assessor to do the basic functions of the office and get the assessments right in the first place."
Of note: An independent analysis of CCAO and BOR actions suggests that both agencies have mis-assessed values, albeit in different county regions.
Rich vs poor neighborhoods: Homeowners in the wealthiest neighborhoods were four times more likely to appeal their assessment than those in the lowest-income areas, the Treasurer's report says.
Appeal rates in primarily white neighborhoods were 35.5% but 10.85% in Black and 14.06% in Latino areas.
The tax burden from appeals increased by about 5% in high-income areas and about 10% in low-income areas.
The intrigue: Filing appeals can seem daunting (and we explain how to do it here), but the analysis suggests it can make a difference, citing these two examples:
In one Census tract of Gage Park, a low-income majority Latino community where only 5.2% of homeowners appealed, tax bills rose nearly 23%.
But in a tract of high-income, majority white North Center, 60% of homeowners appealed their assessment; tax bills rose less than 15%.
What's next: Belanger says the assessor's office will be "sharing information and working with the BOR on joint standards for property valuations" to create a more "uniform process."
