Mary P. bought her home on Chicago's Northwest Side, then paid for it again with property taxes- "All they want is money – they don’t do anything for you

Mary owns a 1,400 square foot, three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath Chicago home that is currently assessed at $276,674.

“[Property taxes] just keep on going up and up,” Mary said. “That means my mortgage payments go up and it’s kind of hard. I’ve become a widow and it’s hard on one paycheck.”

Mary and her late husband Edward took possession of the home in 1992 when it was worth around $100,000, or $179,000 in today’s dollars. She has paid $105,000 in property taxes since 1992, more than the original value of their home.

“A lot of my friends are moving out of here,” Mary said. “They just can’t afford it. They’re losing their house because of it.”

“A lot of my friends are moving out of here,” Mary said. “They just can’t afford it. They’re losing their house because of it.”

Mary is currently paying $462 per month in property taxes on their home, about two percent of the Cook County Assessor claimed value of $276,674.

“I’m still working,” Mary said. “I really like it here and I really don’t want to go to the suburbs. But they might force my hands and I have to go if they keep it up.”

Mary is part of a group of senior citizens in Illinois slowly being forced out of their homes, paying for them several times over throughout the years via property taxes. States such as Florida and California protect senior citizens from being high property tax rates, Illinois does not.

“It affects you a lot. You have to put away for the mortgage and the taxes,” Mary said. “It’s just way too high. It keeps on going and going which is going to put force some people to move out of here. Just to get away from here. They just keep on hitting you with more and more bills. Money, that’s all they want is money – they don’t do anything for you. What are they doing for us? Nothing.”

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 Mary lived in Indiana the most she could be charged in property taxes would be $2,766.74 per year or $2,777.26 less than what she currently pays in Illinois.