Mansion Sales in Chicago’s North Shore Match Valuation Hikes

The summer rush on North Shore lakefront mansions didn’t just make brokers happy — it made Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi look clairvoyant.

The nine priciest home sales in suburban Cook County this year have all been lakefront properties in New Trier Township — and nearly all traded for more than Kaegi’s office said they were worth just a few months ago, according to Crain’s. That’s despite widespread complaints this spring, when the assessor’s triennial revaluation of New Trier homes jacked up lakefront assessments by an average of 42 percent.

In Winnetka alone, four waterfront estates fetched between $9.5 million and $12 million. One mansion assessed at $10.8 million sold for $11.4 million in July. Another, pegged at $9.45 million, sold for $9.57 million. Of the nine top-tier New Trier transactions — stretching from Kenilworth to Glencoe — six sold for more than the assessor’s figure, meaning Kaegi’s valuations actually came in low.

“The market is a test of our work,” Kaegi told the outlet. “This shows we passed the test.”

Three properties fell outside that pattern. One was the record-breaking $31.25 million Winnetka estate, appraised at $34.86 million — too high. Another Kenilworth sale went to a developer planning to split the parcel; its $6.8 million sale price was below the $8.49 million assessment. And one Glencoe deal, a neighbor buy-up, doesn’t really count as an open-market comp.

For local property tax consultant Andrea Raila, who ran against Kaegi in 2018, the assessor’s self-congratulation is misplaced. She argued that ultra-luxury valuations are guesswork, with too few comparable sales north of $12 million to justify Kaegi’s models, saying it’s “ridiculous” to assume the market is validating the assessments.

But Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, who brokered five of this year’s top Winnetka deals, disagreed.

“His figures are accurate,” she said. “At the end of the day, the market says so.”

Still, Radnay warned that the surge may not last. New bluff-protection rules in Winnetka are restricting how much of a lakefront site can be developed, limiting terraces and boathouses that helped drive big-dollar deals.

— Eric Weilbacher