Bartlett J. in Algonquin: lost $86K in equity in 16 years

Bartlett and his wife, Patricia, sold their 2,334 five-bedroom, two-bath Algonquin home for $210,000 in July.

They bought the home in 2002 for $211,000, or $296,000 in today’s dollars.

Bartlett and Patricia’s tax bill rose from $3,231 in 2002, or 1.5 percent of their home’s then-value, to as high 3.2 per cent at $6,718 in 2017.

Bartlett and Patricia paid about $82,442 in property taxes over a 16 years of Algonquin home ownership, or 39 percent of their sale price.

Bartlett and Patricia paid about $82,442 in property taxes over a 16 years of Algonquin home ownership, or 39 percent of their sale price.

Over 16 years of home ownership Bartlett and Patricia’s home value was cut by 29 percent and their property taxes increased to an effective rate of 3.2 percent, more than twice 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 Bartlett’s home had been in Indiana the most he could have been charged in property taxes would have been around $2,098 per year or $4,620 less than what he last paid on his Algonquin home.