Skyrocketing Tax Assessments Rattle Chicago’s South and West Sides

Residents on the West and South sides of Chicago should buckle up for what’s likely to be big jumps in their homes’ tax assessments, extending a trend of the past two years.

More than 37,000 homes on the South and West sides saw their assessments double between 2023 and 2024, with parts of Englewood, Roseland and North Lawndale hit by median hikes ranging from 119 percent to 160 percent, the Chicago Tribune reported in partnership with the Illinois Answers Project. By comparison, the citywide median increase was about 22 percent, with affluent neighborhoods like the Gold Coast rising only 3 percent.

Mayor Brandon Johnson saw a 35 percent increase on his West Side home in the Austin neighborhood. The uneven pattern has left lower-income communities shouldering much of the pain stemming from rising property tax levies, even as their home values still trail the city at large.

The steep increases are expected to put struggling homeowners in a bind this fall when property tax bills come due. With property taxes in historically lower-valued and lower-income neighborhoods rising to make them unaffordable for current residents, there’s few places for them to turn. Neighborhoods such as Englewood and North Lawndale will still have some of the lowest overall assessed property values, but their residents already experience some of the highest rates of poverty in the city.

Leodus Thomas Jr., for example, who is also an Austin resident, said he bought his home for $135,000 in 2016 and has spent the past decade rehabbing other distressed properties to put them back on the tax rolls, he told the newspaper. Now, rising assessments threaten to upend his work.

“We find properties and get them back on the tax roll — but lately we’ve been punished for that, big-time,” Thomas told the outlet.

Thomas’ home was valued by the county at $163,000 just two years ago. Now, it’s pegged at $260,000 — pushing his annual bill up by about $700. His spike is far from the worst.

The hikes are fueling fears of displacement and stalling investment. While rising assessments don’t automatically increase tax bills, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office admits homes with above-average increases face higher risks of steep rises.

Assessments are legally tied to market activity, and Kaegi’s staff points to investors buying up cheap lots and rehabbing older homes as the main driver. The pattern echoes earlier gentrification cycles in Pilsen and Logan Square, where sudden valuation spikes triggered tax revolts. Kaegi’s staff sees these factors as the potential start of gentrification in these West and South side neighborhoods.

Some homeowners are protected by exemptions. Retired CTA worker Clarence Hunt avoided a $1,700 bill after his senior freeze capped his home’s taxable value at $60,000. But many longtime residents either don’t know about such programs or don’t apply, leaving them vulnerable.

Developers and nonprofits active in Englewood and Lawndale have warned recently that speculative buyers — often LLCs scooping up multiple properties — are inflating comparable sales without investing in community needs.

Tax pressures could intensify. Chicago Public Schools and other taxing bodies have hiked levies in recent years, and the county treasurer’s office recently found that appeals at the Board of Review have shifted nearly $2 billion in tax burden from commercial owners onto homeowners since 2021. Kaegi pitched a “circuit breaker” bill in Springfield to soften shocks, but the proposal stalled.

Residents like Thomas are left to juggle rising bills with fragile development plans for the time being.

“Coming from the top, they want affordable housing in the city,” he said. “But that’s almost impossible with how we’re being taxed.”

— Eric Weilbacher