Chicago area among hardest hit by 2017 Republican tax plan

Chicago’s metro-area counties are high on the list of the U.S. counties hit hardest by the 2017 federal tax reform package, according to a report by Moody’s Analytics.

Of the U.S.’s nearly 3,100 counties, Lake County ranks fifth for lost home value and Cook County ranks 36th. Cook County was the least impacted of Chicago’s six-county metropolitan area due to its small proportion of homes whose property tax bills are over the new $10,000 limit for deducting state and local taxes on federal filings, according to Crain’s.

In the wake of the tax law changes, Lake County homes have lost 9.9 percent of what they might have been worth at the end of seven years, followed by McHenry County (8.4 percent), Will County (7.5 percent), DuPage County (7.4 percent) and Cook and Kane counties, both at 6.6 percent.

The figures are a measure of how much home value growth won’t happen as a result of the changes in the tax law, rather than a decline in value. Data from Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist Mark Zandi shows the difference in prices with and without the changes in seven years, the typical life of a mortgage.

Throughout the U.S., home prices will be about 4 percent less than they could have been worth without the tax law changes, and about a third of the counties on the list will take a hit of 1 percent of less. Home values nationwide will lose a total of about a trillion dollars in potential growth, according to ProPublica, which published Zandi’s list this month.

All of the other counties in the top 10, not including Lake County, are all in the New York metropolitan area. [Crain’s]  — Brianna Kelly