As property taxes continue to rise, Illinois officials consider bills that could offer some relief to homeowners
In Cook County, the last complete tax cycle marked the 30th straight year property taxes have increased, according to the latest annual tax analysis by the Cook County Treasurer.
Image: Cook County Treasurer’s Office
With reassessments in the City of Chicago completed and the second round of property taxes in Cook County due to be sent out later this summer, The Chicago Reporter built a guide explaining how the bills are made, what factors contribute to tax hikes and what to expect from your upcoming installment. This is the first story in an series on the future of property taxes in the county..
How your property tax bill is calculated
The process of calculating a property tax bill involves three players with different yet complementary roles.
The Cook County Assessor determines the properties’ taxable value through a three-phase reassessment cycle. Properties in the City of Chicago were reassessed in 2024, North Suburban Cook County is being reassessed this year and 2026 will be the south suburbs’ turn.
While reassessment works are underway, units of local government set the amount of money needed, also called levies, to fund public services. Finally, the Cook County Clerk uses the taxable value and the levies to calculate the local tax rates. Multiplied by the local taxable property value, these rates should equal the budget set by local governments.
Image: Cook County Assessor’s Office
The amount owed by each property is charged in two installments, usually due at the beginning of March and in late summer. By law, the amount due in the first bill corresponds to 55% of the previous year’s total taxes. The second installment reflects the latest assessment of property value, the new tax rate and eventual exemptions, and includes a “where your money goes” breakdown, a practice inaugurated in the 2024 bills.
Image: The Chicago Reporter
Different factors contribute to property tax hikes, including how much money local governments need to fund services and how accurately and fairly property values are assessed.
Because they determine the portion of the total community budget to be paid by each property, assessments are key in determining how an individual bill will change, while the budget set by different agencies affects the total amount owed.
The Burden
A 2024 study placed the Midwest, Illinois and Chicago as top-ranking in the nation regarding tax rates and the increase in the average property tax bill. Of the five metropolitan areas across the country with the highest effective tax rate for single-family homes in 2024, four were in Illinois, with Chicago being the second (1.91 percent), only behind Rockford (2.06 percent, according to Crain’s).
When it comes to increases in average property tax bills, Chicago ranked 5th among metro areas with populations over 1 million.
Image: The Chicago Reporter
Chicago’s total property tax burden rose by 53.3% between 2014 and 2023, according to a Civic Foundation report, released in November 2024.
More recently, the tax burden shifted by three percentage points from commercial to residential properties in 2024, the Cook County Assessor reported last month, which will likely lead to an overall increase in homeowners’ tax bills this year, The Chicago Tribune projected.
Recent data on property tax spikes released by the Assessor’s Office shows that nearly 240,000 homeowners in Cook County saw their bills increase by 25% or more between tax years 2021 and 2023.
When it comes to the tax year 2024, due this year, it’s hard to tell how much taxes will increase in Cook County as a whole since budgets for taxing agencies have not yet been finalized.
Moving forward
Different initiatives have taken place to try to curb property tax increases at the local and state levels recently.
Improvements within the existing property tax system have been more common and easier to implement compared to attempts to completely reform it, according to University of Chicago professor Christopher Berry.
“The politics of systematic reform are much more daunting,” Berry, the academic director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, said in an interview. “I think that’s why most of the reforms that have been getting more serious attention have been of these more incremental varieties.”
For instance, earlier this year, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi announced the filing of the Circuit Breaker Property Tax Relief Act, a bill aimed at providing property tax relief for homeowners whose taxes spiked by 25% or more from one year to the next.
“I hope we can start to move toward a property tax system that’s fair for all, one that doesn’t leave working-class families and senior citizens scraping together enough money for property taxes twice a year,” Kaegi said in a Feb. 13 statement from the Cook County Assessor’s Office.
But discussions on broader reforms do exist. Springfield passed a law, effective since January, approving plans to conduct an evaluation of the property tax system, including “the State’s reliance on property taxes and the historical growth in property tax levies.” A final report should be submitted to the Illinois General Assembly by July 1, 2026.