Kanye West Falls Behind on Property Taxes for Childhood Home

Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has fallen behind on property taxes for his childhood home in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, adding to his recent real estate woes.

He bought the modest house in 2018 to save it from demolition.

The first-half property tax bill of $1,514, due March 4, hasn’t been paid, Crain’s reported, citing Cook County Treasurer records. The second installment, normally due Aug. 1, hasn’t been mailed due to Cook County delays.

The unpaid balance at 7815 South South Shore Drive is a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly $78 million in luxury real estate Ye once owned, but it hints at broader neglect across his far-flung portfolio.

Over the past two years, the artist’s holdings — which once stretched from Malibu to Wyoming — have been plagued by unpaid bills, stalled projects and sharp devaluations.

In September, Ye sold his 6,700-acre Bighorn Mountain Ranch in Wyoming for $14 million — roughly half a million less than he paid in 2019.

His smaller Monster Lake Ranch, also in Wyoming, has been on and off the market for years without a reported sale.

And in Malibu, a minimalist concrete mansion designed by Pritzker Prize–winner Tadao Ando — which Ye gutted after buying for $57 million in 2021 — sold last fall for $21 million, a staggering $36 million loss.

Closer to Los Angeles, several of Ye’s properties are in limbo. A $6.7 million Melrose Avenue commercial building purchased as Yeezy’s future headquarters sits vacant. A Calabasas condo listed for $2.95 million reportedly has more than $60,000 in unpaid property taxes, and he’s also marketing two other local parcels for a combined $3.5 million.

The South Shore house carries deep personal history for Ye: his mother, Donda West, bought it in 1981, and he lived there until he was a teenager. After a series of ownership changes and a foreclosure, Ye reacquired the home through an LLC from his longtime collaborator, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who had planned to convert it into an arts incubator called Donda’s House.

The property shows signs of partial renovation — a new roof, siding, windows and a wrought-iron fence with “Donda’s House” initials — but its current use is unclear. Whether Ye ever intended it as a residence, museum or symbolic gesture, the missed tax payment suggests the South Shore home has become just another loose end in an unraveling real estate empire.

— Eric Weilbacher