Sreeni D. in West Dundee: lost $300K in equity in 14 years

Sreeni and his wife, Hima, sold their 3,400 square foot, five-bedroom, three-bath with a three-car garage located “Timbers & Valleys” section of the Carrington Reserve subdivision for $331,500 in July.

They bought the home in 2004 for $474,000, or $632,000 in today’s dollars.

Property taxes on Sreeni and Hima's rose from $7,324 in 2004, or 1.5 percent of their home’s then-value, to $12,228 in 2017, an increase of 40 percent during their ownership.

All told, they paid about $150,603 in property taxes over a 14-year period of West Dundee home ownership, or 45 percent of their sale price.

All told, they paid about $150,603 in property taxes over a 14-year period of West Dundee home ownership, or 45 percent of their sale price.

While Sreeni and Hima’s home value decreased by half, their property taxes effectively increased to an effective rate of 3.7 percent, over double what they were when they first bought.

Indiana has a hard 1 percent cap on property taxes. This means local governments are not allowed under state law to charge homeowner’s more than 1 percent of their home’s assessed value per year. The average property tax rate for the state of Indiana is 0.89 percent. Meanwhile the average property tax rate in Illinois is 2.3 percent.

If Sreeni’s home had been in Indiana the most he could have been charged in property taxes would have been around $3,304 per year or $8,924 less than what he last paid on his West Dundee home.