Jeanette K.: We can’t afford it on retirement [to stay in Illinois].

Jeanette K. owns a 3,928 square foot, 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom Grayslake home that is currently assessed at $469,413.

“We are actively searching for homes just over the border in Wisconsin, where taxes are roughly one-third of what they are in Illinois,” Jeanette said. “We can’t afford it on retirement [to stay in Illinois]. We’ve just seen it progressively worse.”

Jeanette took possession of the home in 1988 when it was worth around $73,250, or $156,307 in today’s dollars. She has paid $172,610 in property taxes since 2000, more than 235 percent of the original value of her home.

“The property taxes have also affected my income,” Jeanette said. “I am a real estate agent and people are leaving the state and not buying a house with me.”

“The property taxes have also affected my income,” Jeanette said. “I am a real estate agent and people are leaving the state and not buying a house with me.”

Jeanette is currently paying $14,083 per year in property taxes on her home, about 3 percent of the Lake County Assessor claimed value of $469,413.

“My husband is very attached to this home,” Jeanette said. “He designed it and had it built, and he would like to live out the rest of his days there, but with Social Security and me not bringing in a lot of money, we just can’t afford it. We’re trying to get it sold before we lose it.”

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.

“I think the hard cap like in Indiana would be awesome,” Jeanette said. “It wouldn’t reduce what we owe now, but it would definitely help other people.”

If Jeanette lived in Indiana the most she could be charged in property taxes would be $4,694 per year or $9,389 less than what she currently pays in Illinois.

“Our property taxes are not evenly distributed,” Jeanette said. “They’re putting so much on the schools and while I understand they need some funding, they’re putting so much on them. I think there should be some other taxation for the school system besides property taxes.”

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