Public records show Naperville Councilman Ian Holzhauer claims two homestead exemptions despite Illinois law
Naperville City Councilman Ian Holzhauer, a real estate attorney, is listed in public records as receiving homestead exemptions on two separate Naperville properties, even though Illinois limits the exemption to a taxpayer’s primary residence for a given assessment year.
Homestead exemptions are intended solely for a taxpayer’s primary residence, and claiming more than one in the same year is considered a form of tax fraud.
According to the DuPage County Assessor’s Office, Holzhauer, a real estate attorney and former U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer, owns homes at 69 S. Parkway Drive and 1202 Vermont Court in Naperville.
Holzhauer, who is a partner at the Naperville law firm Nagle, Obarski & Holzhauer, P.C., purchased the 4-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom Parkway Drive home in July 2025 for $949,000.
Holzhauer and his wife, Julia, with whom he is currently undergoing a divorce and with whom he shares four children attending Naperville schools, jointly own a 5-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home on Vermont Court, purchased in 2015 for $390,000 and now valued at $690,000.
The City of Naperville is partly funded by property taxpayer funds. In 2025 that amount was over $30 million.
This is not Holzhauer’s first brush with property tax controversy.
He previously paid no property taxes on the Vermont Court property from 2016 to 2023, saving an estimated $76,000.
He only began paying taxes after the DuPage Policy Journal reported in 2023 that, despite claiming a 70% disability for a property tax exemption, Holzhauer had completed the Chicago Marathon, maintained a 7-minute, 5-second mile and regularly participated in intensive interval training at Naperville’s Orange Theory.
For his disabled status, Holzhauer also receives $2,117 per month in tax-free VA disability compensation despite continuing to work full time as an estate lawyer while serving on the city council.
Ian Holzhauer, a Naperville City Council member who formerly paid no property taxes
claiming he is "70 percent disabled," finishes the Chicago Marathon in 2016. (X)
Under Illinois law, veterans rated 70% disabled or higher are fully exempt from paying property taxes. His use of the exemption drew criticism given his active professional and athletic lifestyle.
“This original bill was designed for veterans who have lost a limb or lost their sight,” former Il. state rep. Jeanne Ives, currently the CEO of Breakthough Ideas and host of The Real Story on AM 560, said at the time during a Facebook Live session. “I can see having a property tax break of significance for them. But not for these people.”
She cited Holzhauer as an example of an elected official taking advantage of what she called a law with a “major flaw.”
“If you can afford a $750,000 home, you can afford to pay something towards your property tax bill,” Ives said.
Holzhauer, a lifelong Naperville resident, was first elected to the Naperville City Council in 2021 and re-elected in 2025.
He is also the brother of James Holzhauer, a prominent Jeopardy! champion and fellow Naperville North High School graduate.