3 ms·

I like Chicago, was it in north suburbs? Looking at two flats/three flats, everything there is quite affordable, but am worried about IL itself and cook county

I like Chicago, was it in north suburbs? Looking at two flats/three flats, everything there is quite affordable, but am worried about IL itself and cook county taxes.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
No - Wicker Park. Love it. My family isn't too far away, and I had a few close friends there, so it worked out surprisingly well.
Kon-Peki 5y ago
The current governor has done an outstanding job getting the state's fiscal house in order, and neither Republicans nor Democrats are happy about it. But you can look at the numbers yourself and see that the state is doing very well. Cook County... Well, that's a different story. The current assessor is following through on his campaign promise to clean up the assessors office and make property assessments modern and fair. And everyone hates him. If his reforms survive, the next step is to start a fight over how much everything costs. And then Cook County will be well on its way to fiscal health. If the reforms do not survive... But you should also note that property taxes as a percentage of property value are significantly lower in the city of Chicago than suburban Cook County. Like a house in Chicago could be paying half the property tax compared to a similarly-priced house in Glenview.
- rootsudo 5y ago
  It has been quite a while but that's good to hear, that was worrying back a few years for the state! But that's also interesting to note that city of Chicago is quite cheap then unincorporated? suburban cook county, the thing of course is all the historical reasons why city of Chicago is empty, though as of late, Bronzeville and more south has not been so bad. So many beautiful houses there that were/are still quite cheap, relatively and good property.
  - Kon-Peki 5y ago
    I'm not sure there is such a thing as unincorporated territory in Cook County. But consider that each skyscraper downtown is paying millions of dollars a year in taxes. There are a lot of large industrial sites in the city - for example, the factory that makes the Ford Explorer and the supplier park surrounding it - is inside the city of Chicago. It's a huge tax base; not to say that the city is better run than the suburbs or anything. Consider also that there is only 1 fire chief (and his salary and pension) for 2.7 million people, etc. The suburbs aren't sharing their administration staff with other suburbs ;)

I like Chicago, was it in north suburbs? Looking at two flats/three flats, everything there is quite affordable, but am worried about IL itself and cook county taxes.

onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago

No - Wicker Park. Love it. My family isn't too far away, and I had a few close friends there, so it worked out surprisingly well.

Kon-Peki 5y ago

The current governor has done an outstanding job getting the state's fiscal house in order, and neither Republicans nor Democrats are happy about it. But you can look at the numbers yourself and see that the state is doing very well. Cook County... Well, that's a different story. The current assessor is following through on his campaign promise to clean up the assessors office and make property assessments modern and fair. And everyone hates him. If his reforms survive, the next step is to start a fight over how much everything costs. And then Cook County will be well on its way to fiscal health. If the reforms do not survive... But you should also note that property taxes as a percentage of property value are significantly lower in the city of Chicago than suburban Cook County. Like a house in Chicago could be paying half the property tax compared to a similarly-priced house in Glenview.

rootsudo 5y ago
It has been quite a while but that's good to hear, that was worrying back a few years for the state! But that's also interesting to note that city of Chicago is quite cheap then unincorporated? suburban cook county, the thing of course is all the historical reasons why city of Chicago is empty, though as of late, Bronzeville and more south has not been so bad. So many beautiful houses there that were/are still quite cheap, relatively and good property.
- Kon-Peki 5y ago
  I'm not sure there is such a thing as unincorporated territory in Cook County. But consider that each skyscraper downtown is paying millions of dollars a year in taxes. There are a lot of large industrial sites in the city - for example, the factory that makes the Ford Explorer and the supplier park surrounding it - is inside the city of Chicago. It's a huge tax base; not to say that the city is better run than the suburbs or anything. Consider also that there is only 1 fire chief (and his salary and pension) for 2.7 million people, etc. The suburbs aren't sharing their administration staff with other suburbs ;)