By Don DeBat

Dec. 15, 2025 – Chicago and Cook County’s brainy real estate tax experts are pointing fingers of blame while trying to explain the perfect storm.

When tens of thousands of Chicago homeowners realized that their median property tax bills catapulted 16.7 percent in a single year, reality hit them between the eyes.

Experts say the tax wave tsunami was caused by the financial death dance between fat-cat downtown commercial property owners – millionaires who own high-rise apartment buildings, office towers, and luxury hotels – and lowly bungalow owners in blue-collar neighborhoods.

Timing of the city’s astronomical billion-dollar demands and the dire need to raise taxes to pay for the excesses collided with the foxtrot that likely will play out in the next mayoral election.

Several city aldermen blame Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi for skyrocketing property assessments, which led to dramatically higher tax bills.

Kaegi, who is up for reelection in 2026, responded by accusing the Cook County Board of Review – a three-member appeals body with whom he has feuded for years – of slashing downtown commercial property values.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union, one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (left) most powerful supporters, is taking the side of the bungalow owners and blaming the skyscraper owners.

All a hapless property owner has to do is look at his or her property tax bill to realize that spending by the city’s less-than-sterling Chicago Public Schools (CPS) accounts for a jaw-dropping half of their tax bite.

One Old Town owner, who saw the second installment of his 2024 tax bill skyrocket 144.9 percent to an unbelievable $20,157, glanced at the numbers. The total 2024 tax bill on the senior’s brownstone four-flat property was $33,566, up 21.5 percent from $27,628 in 2023. The Board of Education expenditures accounted for $18,414 of the owner’s 2024 tax bill. That’s a whopping 45 percent of the total bill!

The senior – who lives on Social Security and a small pension – also is wondering how he will pay the first installment of the 2025 property tax bill due in three-and-a-half months on April 1, 2026.

That estimated bill will be $20,157 plus 5 percent – or a total of $21,185. (Right) Old Town and Gold Coast neighborhoods of Chicago.

And it is likely that the second installment of the 2025 bill – due on August 1, 2026 – will be a similar or larger amount as the first installment of 2025 taxes.

So, unless the owner files for – and wins – a Senior Freeze Exemption, it is possible the senior could be hit with three crushing tax payments totaling a mind-boggling $62,527 within seven-and-a-half months!

How will small “ma-and-pa” landlords ever be able to pay Mount Everest-like taxes without selling out – or passing double-digit rent increases to tenants?

Rental fees, for starters

Squeezed by higher operating costs, many landlords with under-market rental rates are upping base rental charges by passing through fees.

For example, fees – ranging from $25 to $200-plus on average per month – are “bundled utility pass-throughs” that may include water, sewer, electric, heat, garbage hauling, landscaping, and snow removal. Dog and cat lovers may be billed monthly “pet rent” of $25 to $75 per animal to recoup the landlord’s fees for pet wear-and-tear on the apartment and building premises.

Most landlords are not charging a security deposit, which typically is refundable, less any damages to the unit. Instead, to improve cash flow, more owners are charging up-front, non-refundable move-in and administrative fees to help cover the cost of the tenant’s wear-and-tear on the apartment.

With tax bills soaring, some apartment owners and managers are considering inserting a clause in the standard Chicago Real Estate Board lease that mirrors typical commercial leases.

For example, in a “net lease” used by many commercial managers, the tenant is responsible for a percentage of the building operating expenses, such as property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs, in addition to rent.

Schools take a chunk of your property tax payments

For owners and managers, the dinosaur in the room is the cost the Board of Education allocated to the property tax bill. In 2024, CPS increased its tax levy by 4.5 percent to nearly $4 billion. The CPS is subject to caps on how much it can increase property taxes. However, loopholes exist.

The CPS received a special property tax levy of nearly $700 million to help pay for Chicago teachers’ pensions, interest on borrowing, and capital projects, according to a recent analysis by the Civic Federation and the University of Chicago.

Assessor Fritz Kaegi now is calling for reforms to protect homeowners and raising alarms about the unfairness of a property tax system that forces reductions in downtown commercial properties to be shouldered by Black and Latino residents.

“The property tax system is inherently unfair,” said Kaegi (left). “When commercial properties have their assessments lowered by the Board of Review, homeowners are forced to pay the difference. We cannot have a property tax system that favors corporations and does not provide protections for homeowners.”

Currently, there is no “annual cap” on how high, or how often, taxes are levied on property owners. Critics wonder why property owners who don’t have children, who are older, empty nesters, or those who home-school their children, or pay for private schooling, must be burdened with paying for schools they do not utilize.

This is why Kaegi has been fighting for a “circuit breaker” in the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield. It would limit how much a homeowner’s tax bill can increase from year to year.

A report from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas shows that while the Assessor’s Office continues to fairly assess homeowners in the neighborhoods of Chicago, large downtown commercial properties are seeing hefty reductions from appeals at the Board of Review.

These reductions, combined with a red-hot residential real estate market, are causing unsustainable tax bill increases for homeowners, particularly for Black and Latino residents.

“Homeowners who stayed in their homes and invested in their community continue to be harmed by this system,” said Assessor Kaegi. “These increases for residents are outrageous, especially as commercial properties are seeing their taxes go down. I will work with legislators to stop this ongoing racial inequity.”

Kaegi said the Assessor’s Office will continue to advocate for “circuit breaker” legislation at the state level to provide property tax relief to homeowners that have seen unsustainable bill spikes. A recent analysis by the Assessor’s Office found that nearly 250,000 households have seen this kind of spike in recent years.

“It’s going to be an incredibly difficult year for many of Chicago’s most vulnerable homeowners to find the money to pay their tax bills. It shouldn’t have to be that way,” said Kaegi. “I encourage every homeowner to take advantage of the help our office provides to deal with these unfair tax spikes while I continue to reform this broken system.”

What to do if you can’t pay by December 15

What can you do to avoid late-payment interest charges if you cannot pay the second installment of your Cook County property taxes when it is due on December 15?

“I know coming up with the money to pay property tax bills ten days before Christmas can be difficult,” said Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas (right).

Property owners unable to pay their tax bills in full should look at the Cook County Treasurer’s free online financial planning tool that helps you make smaller, more manageable payments over time.

It’s called the “Payment Plan Calculator” and it’s available starting on December 16 – one day after the tax due date. The calculator lets you:

• Set up a schedule to pay off a tax bill in smaller increments instead of all at once.

• Choose between making payments once or twice a month.

• Create a personalized plan for catching up on delinquent taxes if you owe more than $100.

While logged into the Treasurer’s website, click on the purple box. Enter your PIN (your property’s Permanent Index Number) or your property address and hit continue. Then scroll down until you see the Payment Plan Calculator next to the Pay Now button. Click it and a page will appear asking you to type your name and email address.

Choose how often you want to make payments – monthly or twice monthly. The calculator will automatically show a recommended payment schedule to help you pay off your balance before the next annual tax sale.

Select Summary View to quickly compare dates, amounts, and your remaining balance. When you find a plan that fits your budget, download or print your personalized schedule to track your payments.

“If you are unable to pay in full by the due date, you now have about 13 months to pay off your bill before your unpaid tax debt is offered for auction at the legally required annual tax sale,” Pappas said.

During those 13 months interest will be charged at 9 percent a year, or 0.75 percent a month.

“The annual interest rate was 18 percent but my office fought for and won legislative reforms in Springfield that cut the state mandated interest rate in half,” Pappas said.

The Payment Plan Calculator, she said, is designed to help property owners avoid borrowing from a credit card company or having to pay back or “redeem” your taxes after they’re sold to a tax buyer.

More info: Cook County Treasurer