Client: Better Late Than Never

There are three things you can always count on, death, taxes, and Cook County being mired in bureaucracy.

2nd installment property tax bills generally come out in August. This year, Cook County announced they will most likely be released in November and due in December. The good news is, you will still get the payment in this year, and deduct it from your 2022 taxes.

Here is the bad news. The City of Chicago underwent its triennial re-assessment period. Simply put, every 3 years, they re-evaluate all property and come up with the property's new assessed value. The increases we have seen on the whole have been huge (upwards of 30% in some cases and up to 80% higher in others).

The county plugs that assessed value into a formula to determine how much tax you owe. So if the assessed value goes up, likely so do your property taxes. You likely could owe much more than you realize. Remember, the formula is 2021 Assessed Valuation x the 2021 State Equalizer minus any applicable exemptions X the local tax rate. We are still awaiting the final State Equalizer and the finalized local tax rates, however.

This does complicate matters for those buying and selling real estate.

If you are trying to sell by a tax deadline, contact our office immediately. If you escrow for taxes, this can be trickier than you think. You do not want your lender to put the check in the mail to pay your taxes and then try to close. You could easily double pay your real estate taxes! We have seen this frequently.

Please consult our offices for particulars and get ready for your tax escrows to jump on a monthly basis once the tax bills are released later this year.