Chicago City Wire

In September 2013, Kathleen O’Brien and James Penland paid $286,000 – $303,000 in today's dollars – for a two-bedroom, 1-bath home at 2174 West Giddings St. in Ravenswood. The home's 2015 property taxes were $4,759, an effective rate then of 1.7 percent.

O’Brien and Penland sold the home on March 8 for $321,500. Their tax bill this year: $5,430, or about 2 percent of its sale value.

That's the median effective rate in Ravenswood this year, according to a Blockshopper.com analysis of real estate sales data in Cook County from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2018, among the highest in Chicago’s North Side neighborhood.

It is also 1.68 times more than the national average and slightly lower than the state average.

Put another way: a $321,000 home in Indiana, where the effective rate is 0.89 percent, would have a property tax bill of about $2,800, or more than $2,600 less per year.

Blockshopper's data, covering 21 North Side communities, shows homeowners in Ravenswood, Wrigleyville, and Lincoln Square pay the highest property taxes in the county – approximately 2 percent of their homes' value each year.

Homeowners in Ravenswood, where the median sale price was $359,000 for homes sold between January and June, pay the highest bills – nearly $7,181 per home – or over 2 percent of the median home value, according to the data.

Wrigleyville, Lincoln Square and Andersonville all have similar median effective property tax rates of approximately 2 percent.

Illinois homeowners pay the second-highest property taxes in the country with an effective median rate of 2.22 percent, just behind those in New Jersey (2.28 percent).

Equity-less home ownership

Carol and Grant Burth sold their condo in Wrigleyville on June 26 for $332,000 for a mere 4 percent increase from the $319,000 they paid for it in 2015.

But consider inflation – that $319,000 home really cost $332,000 in today's dollars. And property taxes – the Burths paid $12,600 over their three years of Wrigleyville home ownership, with their last bill being $4,415, an effective rate of 1.3 percent. All told, they barely broke even on the deal.

It could be worse. Other North Side condos have declined in value over the years.  On July 11, Megan Kuehling sold her condo at 4028 Sheridan Road in Buena Park for $223,000.  She purchased the property in 2004 for $229,500, which equates to approximately $300,000 today.  In her 14 years of ownership, she paid over $34,000 in property taxes with a total loss of over $110,000.

Wrigleyville has among the highest home values in Cook County and one of the highest effective tax rates — 1.97 percent, nearly 1 percent more than Buena Park. Many North Side communities have property tax rates that are over 1.5 times the national average.

Market trends show that nearly 23 percent of Chicago homeowners are upside-down on their mortgages with a delinquency rate of approximately 1.6 percent of the national average and over 6 percent higher than surrounding areas.

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Top Property Rates in Chicago's North Side

The following table ranks Chicago's North Side neighborhoods by their median effective property tax rate, calculated using sales and property tax data from 2018.

Neighborhood	Jan - June 2018 Sales	Jan - June 2018 Median Price	Median tax	Effective Tax Rate
Ravenswood	243	$359,000	$7,181	2.00%
Wrigleyville	208	$440,000	$8,661	1.97%
Lincoln Square	50	$438,000	$8,224	1.88%
Andersonville	125	$425,000	$7,966	1.87%
West Rogers Park	402	$233,250	$4,181	1.79%
Lincoln Park	1,124	$456,000	$7,769	1.70%
Roscoe Village	149	$593,500	$9,554	1.61%
North Center	190	$598,500	$9,534	1.59%
Lakeview	993	$429,500	$6,707	1.56%
Gold Coast	574	$390,000	$5,644	1.45%
Near North	267	$322,500	$4,539	1.41%
River North	221	$410,000	$5,703	1.39%
Old Town	185	$340,000	$4,623	1.36%
Uptown	369	$235,000	$3,180	1.35%
Goose Island	71	$450,000	$6,039	1.34%
Edgewater	511	$192,000	$2,556	1.33%
Boystown	281	$267,000	$3,282	1.23%
Buena Park	176	$236,500	$2,778	1.17%
Rogers Park	310	$195,000	$2,284	1.17%
Streeterville	95	$412,500	$4,778	1.16%
The Loop	369	$190,000	$1,104	0.58%

Source: BlockShopper.com; Cook County Assessor’s Office

Median Sales Prices in Chicago's North Side

The following table ranks Chicago's North Side neighborhoods by the year-over-year change in median sale price, which is calculated using prices of properties sold during the first six months of 2018.

Neighborhood	Jan - June 2017 Sales	Jan - June 2017 Median Price	Jan - June 2018 Sales	Jan - June 2018 Median Price	Change
Boystown	452	$239,500	281	$267,000	11.48%
Rogers Park	337	$177,000	310	$195,000	10.17%
Gold Coast	564	$356,000	574	$390,000	9.55%
West Rogers Park	469	$220,000	402	$233,250	6.02%
River North	231	$390,000	221	$410,000	5.13%
Goose Island	82	$431,250	71	$450,000	4.35%
Ravenswood	318	$349,000	243	$359,000	2.87%
Buena Park	175	$230,500	176	$236,500	2.60%
Andersonville	123	$429,000	125	$425,000	-0.93%
Roscoe Village	141	$600,000	149	$593,500	-1.08%
Lakeview	1,005	$435,000	993	$429,500	-1.26%
Uptown	308	$248,500	369	$235,000	-5.43%
Old Town	179	$361,000	185	$340,000	-5.82%
Streeterville	93	$440,000	95	$412,500	-6.25%
Near North	273	$350,000	267	$322,500	-7.86%
Lincoln Square	40	$490,000	50	$438,000	-10.61%
Edgewater	429	$215,000	511	$192,000	-10.70%
North Center	218	$672,500	190	$598,500	-11.00%
Wrigleyville	183	$500,000	208	$440,000	-12.00%
Lincoln Park	974	$520,000	1,124	$456,000	-12.31%
The Loop	121	$365,000	369	$190,000	-47.95%

Sources: Blockshopper.com; Cook County Recorder of Deeds