Property tax delinquencies put many homeowners at risk as 2025 bills spike

Thousands of South Side homeowners could face property tax sales next year, even though many owe relatively small amounts, according to county data.

A Herald analysis of delinquent 2024 property tax records obtained from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office found that tax delinquency is far more common in lower-income areas, even as average amounts owed there remain far lower than in neighborhoods such as Hyde Park and Kenwood. Community advocates say that disparity raises concerns about who is most vulnerable to tax sales, even when debts are modest.

Property owners have 13 months to pay unpaid taxes before the debt can be sold in Cook County’s annual tax sale — the first step in a process that can ultimately lead to foreclosure.

The data analyzed included several south lakefront communities in zip codes 60609, 60615, 60619, 60621, 60637, 60649 and 60653.

In zip code 60621, which encompasses Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing and Washington Park, 2,929 properties were delinquent on their 2024 property taxes, which is a rate of nearly 100 properties per 1,000 residents. The average amount owed in this zip code was $690. The median household income is about $32,000.

By contrast, zip code 60615, which includes northern Hyde Park and Kenwood, as well as parts of Grand Boulevard and Washington Park, saw only 399 delinquent properties for 2024, a rate of 10 properties per 1,000 residents. Property owners in this area, which has a median household income of $65,000, owed an average of $3,045 when delinquent.

In Woodlawn and South Shore, delinquency rates fall somewhere in the middle, with more properties delinquent than in Hyde Park but average amounts owed remaining well below those in Hyde Park and Kenwood.

Shannon Bennett, executive director of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, said the disparities reflect longstanding inequities in how properties are assessed and taxed in Chicago.

“I think we all know that there is a racial piece to this, where we are often taxed higher in Black communities and marginalized communities than our counterparts,” Bennett said. “The other thing that always jumps out is the overvaluation of our homes, which leads to the higher taxes on the South and West Sides.”

Under former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, the assessor’s office relied on valuation practices that a 2017 Chicago Tribune investigation found routinely overvalued homes in many Black and Latino neighborhoods while undervaluing properties in wealthier, predominantly white areas.

Since taking office in 2018, Assessor Fritz Kaegi has overhauled the system. A University of Chicago study published last year found assessments have become significantly less regressive, though disparities in tax delinquency persist in some neighborhoods.

Even with changes to the assessment system, homeowners on the city’s South and West Sides report continued financial strain as property tax bills rise. The issue has become more urgent after sharp increases in 2025 tax bills.

According to a report from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, the median residential tax bill in Chicago rose 16.7% to $4,457, the largest percentage increase in at least 30 years. The increases hit hardest in Black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides as the tax burden shifted away from commercial properties in the Loop. In Hyde Park, the increase wasn’t as steep as the city median, 8.6%, but in Woodlawn and in Englewood, the increase was 33.3% and 82% respectively.

Bennett warned that properties delinquent in 2024 face a dire consequence if they cannot pay their 2025 taxes: they can be put up for auction at property tax sales, regardless of the amount owed.

“Illinois has a critically lower threshold,” Bennett said. “People’s homes can be taken because of delinquent properties.”

Illinois is the only state in which homeowners can lose not just their homes but also all of their equity if foreclosed on for property tax delinquency. A May investigation by Injustice Watch and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity found that more than 1,000 owner-occupied homes in Cook County have been taken in tax foreclosures since 2019, most of them in majority-Black communities. Those homes had a fair market value totaling $108 million. The homeowners lost them over tax debts that collectively amounted to just $2.3 million.

Cook County offers exemptions and payment plans, but advocates say many eligible homeowners are unaware of them or struggle to navigate the process.

“Policy has to be changed to have relief,” Bennett said. “We really need to deal with it, because it’s only going to get worse.”

But efforts to reform Illinois’s property tax sale system stalled in the state legislature last summer, leaving the current system in place.