The property taxes on this Oak Brook mansion doubled in six years. | Zillow
The property taxes on this Oak Brook mansion doubled in six years. | Zillow
Two decades ago, in 1997, Ron and Laura Del Ciello bought a 2,000 square foot, three bedroom, three bath at 685 Stuart St. in Carol Stream’s Kingsport Ridge subdivision for $206,250, or about $324,000 today.
The Del Ciellos sold the home last week, on Aug. 20, for $322,500, or about what they paid for it.
While their home’s value, more or less, stayed constant over 20 years, its property taxes did not.
They more than doubled, from about $4,300 in 1997 to $9,299 this year.
In total, the Del Ciellos paid approximately $145,000 in property taxes during their time on Stuart Street, or about $600 per month.
Carol Stream’s effective property tax rate for the first six months of 2018 was 2.65 percent, according to an analysis of DuPage County home sales and taxes by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.
It is one of sixteen DuPage communities whose effective property tax rates are higher than 2.3 percent, or twice the national average. They include Wayne (3.48%), Glendale Heights (3.00%), Hanover Park (2.88%), Bartlett (2.87%) and Roselle (2.81%), Aurora (2.50%), Woodridge (2.49%), Oak Brook (2.42%) , Warrenville (2.40%), Itasca (2.39%), Winfield (2.38%), Addison (2.36%), Oakbrook Terrace (2.36%), Lombard (2.35%), Wood Dale (2.32%), and St. Charles (2.31%).
In contrast, the median effective tax rate in Indiana is 0.89 percent; the state has a hard one percent cap on residential property taxes. The national average is 1.15 percent.
Taxes eating home appreciation
Nationally, increased housing demand and a booming economy has meant home prices are rising at twice the rate of inflation .
But not in DuPage County, where high, and still growing, property tax bills mean home equity gains go to local governments, not homeowners.
The $9,299 annual tax bill on the Del Ciello’s home in Carol Stream would be just $2,883 for a similarly-priced home across the border in Indiana, a difference of $534 per month.
That $534 per month adds up. Over 20 years, it meant the the Del Ciellos paid $90,000 more in property tax than they might have, the difference between a 28 percent return on their home investment and none at all.
Prospective home buyers are now doing math like this, too, and especially at the upper end of the market.
According to LGIS, the median home sale price in affluent Oak Brook during the first six months of this year fell nearly one third, compared to last year, dropping to $420,000 from $579,000.
Precipitously falling home prices means effective property tax rates there, once among the lowest in Illinois, have spiked.
A six bedroom, five bath at 11 Kingston Drive in Oak Brook’s Brook Forest subdivision sold for $531,000 on Aug. 24.
Pastor and author Curtis Stennis and his wife, Linda, paid $845,000 for it — $1.157 million in today’s dollars— back in 2003. The home’s property tax bill rose 67 percent— from $8,147 to $13,571— over the same period.
An 11,000 square foot mansion at 815 Merry Lane with an indoor heated swimming pool that has a retractable roof sold for $865,000 on Aug. 23.
Its owners, Derek and Suzette Brouwer, were originally asking $1.449 million when they listed the home in May. They paid $1.25 million for it in 2012, or about $1.375 million in today’s dollars.
Property taxes on the Brouwer’s home more than doubled over the same period, from $9,509 in 2012 to $20,009 this year.
Lost decades
Where luxury homeowners in DuPage are seeing large losses, homeowners in its middle class communities are running in place, at best.
The median home sale price in Carol Stream was $235,000 for the first six months of 2018. That’s eight percent higher than it was over the same period last year, but still 17 percent lower than it was in 2008 ($283,000).
In Glendale Heights, the median home price is up nine percent year over year, to $185,000. But it is still off 24 percent from 2008 ($243,000).
Rock star Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins’ childhood Glendale Heights home at 1424 Jill Court, a 1,500 square foot bi-level with four bedrooms and two baths, provides a case in point.
His parents bought the home in 1969, when the median home value there was $23,900, or $164,000 in today’s dollars. The home last sold in 2014 for $170,000.
Its tax bill this year: $5,622, or 3.3 percent of its 2014 sale price. Assuming its buyers put 20 percent down, their monthly mortgage payment is $643 in principal and interest, and $469 in property taxes.
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DuPage County communities paying the highest effective property tax rates
The following table ranks DuPage County communities with more than five home sales by their median effective property tax rate, calculated using sales and property tax data from 2018.
| City | Jan - June 2018 Sales | Jan - June 2018 Median Price | Median tax | Effective tax rate |
| Wayne | 13 | $350,000 | $12,176 | 3.48% |
| Glendale Heights | 129 | $185,000 | $5,552 | 3.00% |
| Hanover Park | 67 | $185,000 | $5,336 | 2.88% |
| Bartlett | 152 | $268,000 | $7,681 | 2.87% |
| Roselle | 108 | $209,500 | $5,881 | 2.81% |
| Carol Stream | 187 | $235,000 | $6,232 | 2.65% |
| Bloomingdale | 99 | $261,000 | $6,638 | 2.54% |
| Bolingbrook | 5 | $261,000 | $6,619 | 2.54% |
| Medinah | 8 | $264,750 | $6,669 | 2.52% |
| Aurora | 323 | $228,000 | $5,696 | 2.50% |
| Woodridge | 135 | $266,500 | $6,627 | 2.49% |
| Oak Brook | 71 | $420,000 | $10,146 | 2.42% |
| Warrenville | 66 | $193,174 | $4,629 | 2.40% |
| Itasca | 40 | $259,500 | $6,207 | 2.39% |
| Winfield | 39 | $304,000 | $7,225 | 2.38% |
| Addison | 136 | $221,750 | $5,240 | 2.36% |
| Oakbrook Terrace | 7 | $200,000 | $4,719 | 2.36% |
| Lombard | 226 | $239,898 | $5,641 | 2.35% |
| Wood Dale | 68 | $210,000 | $4,864 | 2.32% |
| St. Charles | 7 | $212,500 | $4,903 | 2.31% |
| Glen Ellyn | 197 | $379,000 | $8,604 | 2.27% |
| Bensenville | 59 | $221,000 | $4,942 | 2.24% |
| West Chicago | 104 | $265,000 | $5,916 | 2.23% |
| Wheaton | 324 | $334,000 | $7,376 | 2.21% |
| Burr Ridge | 37 | $490,000 | $10,722 | 2.19% |
| Lisle | 129 | $322,500 | $7,031 | 2.18% |
| Naperville | 639 | $350,000 | $7,531 | 2.15% |
| Darien | 105 | $277,000 | $5,954 | 2.15% |
| Villa Park | 99 | $245,000 | $5,074 | 2.07% |
| Glenbard South | 17 | $350,000 | $7,126 | 2.04% |
| Dupage City | 28 | $117,750 | $2,327 | 1.98% |
| Clarendon Hills | 61 | $479,000 | $8,773 | 1.83% |
| Westmont | 125 | $270,000 | $4,916 | 1.82% |
| Elmhurst | 256 | $410,000 | $7,433 | 1.81% |
| Downers Grove | 324 | $332,000 | $5,886 | 1.77% |
| York Center | 38 | $158,250 | $2,617 | 1.65% |
| Willowbrook | 73 | $176,500 | $2,726 | 1.54% |
| Hinsdale | 112 | $902,500 | $13,455 | 1.49% |
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DuPage County median home prices
The following table ranks DuPage County communities by the change in their median sale price from 2017 to 2018.
| City | Jan - June 2017 Sales | Jan - June 2017 Median Price | Jan - June 2018 Sales | Jan - June 2018 Median Price | Change |
| Hanover Park | 133 | $153,450 | 67 | $185,000 | 20.56% |
| Westmont | 185 | $225,000 | 125 | $270,000 | 20.00% |
| West Chicago | 176 | $224,900 | 104 | $265,000 | 17.83% |
| Clarendon Hills | 101 | $415,000 | 61 | $479,000 | 15.42% |
| Villa Park | 162 | $215,550 | 99 | $245,000 | 13.66% |
| Lisle | 207 | $288,000 | 129 | $322,500 | 11.98% |
| Willowbrook | 136 | $158,750 | 73 | $176,500 | 11.18% |
| Hinsdale | 189 | $815,000 | 112 | $902,500 | 10.74% |
| Glendale Heights | 207 | $170,000 | 129 | $185,000 | 8.82% |
| York Center | 54 | $146,485 | 38 | $158,250 | 8.03% |
| Elmhurst | 427 | $380,000 | 256 | $410,000 | 7.89% |
| Carol Stream | 279 | $218,500 | 187 | $235,000 | 7.55% |
| Wheaton | 446 | $312,400 | 324 | $334,000 | 6.91% |
| Glen Ellyn | 317 | $355,000 | 197 | $379,000 | 6.76% |
| Naperville | 934 | $329,000 | 639 | $350,000 | 6.38% |
| Aurora | 477 | $217,000 | 323 | $228,000 | 5.07% |
| Bensenville | 98 | $211,000 | 59 | $221,000 | 4.74% |
| Addison | 199 | $212,000 | 136 | $221,750 | 4.60% |
| Darien | 191 | $266,000 | 105 | $277,000 | 4.14% |
| Winfield | 77 | $292,000 | 39 | $304,000 | 4.11% |
| Wood Dale | 108 | $203,500 | 68 | $210,000 | 3.19% |
| Lombard | 405 | $234,000 | 226 | $239,898 | 2.52% |
| St. Charles | 11 | $207,500 | 7 | $212,500 | 2.41% |
| Bloomingdale | 207 | $255,000 | 99 | $261,000 | 2.35% |
| Downers Grove | 518 | $325,000 | 324 | $332,000 | 2.15% |
| Bartlett | 193 | $263,000 | 152 | $268,000 | 1.90% |
| Warrenville | 159 | $190,000 | 66 | $193,174 | 1.67% |
| Bolingbrook | 7 | $257,500 | 5 | $261,000 | 1.36% |
| Woodridge | 197 | $272,000 | 135 | $266,500 | -2.02% |
| Itasca | 77 | $265,000 | 40 | $259,500 | -2.08% |
| Glenbard South | 29 | $362,000 | 17 | $350,000 | -3.31% |
| Dupage City | 45 | $127,000 | 28 | $117,750 | -7.28% |
| Burr Ridge | 56 | $530,625 | 37 | $490,000 | -7.66% |
| Roselle | 170 | $233,500 | 108 | $209,500 | -10.28% |
| Wayne | 17 | $405,000 | 13 | $350,000 | -13.58% |
| Oakbrook Terrace | 18 | $237,000 | 7 | $200,000 | -15.61% |
| Oak Brook | 89 | $579,000 | 71 | $420,000 | -27.46% |
| Medinah | 13 | $432,000 | 8 | $264,750 | -38.72% |
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