Taxes up, property values down in DuPage County

DuPage County property owners again can expect to pay higher taxes on land that's worth less than it used to be.

DuPage officials on Tuesday announced the average tax rate for the county's 384 taxing bodies increased 9.36 percent.

Meanwhile, the overall value of land in DuPage — the other half of the tax equation — fell last year by 5.4 percent, to roughly $32.7 billion.

As a result, property owners across DuPage are going to pay an average of 3.96 percent more on their tax bills, which are due in equal installments in June and September.

“You are paying more because your districts asked for more (tax money),” County Clerk Gary King said.

Local governmental entities, including municipalities and school districts, make requests for tax dollars through their annual levies.

Since 1991, a state-imposed cap limits most of those governments to increases of 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

The Consumer Price Index dropped from 3 percent in 2012 to 1.7 percent in 2013.

Still, the amount of taxes individuals must pay is greater when the total tax take is distributed among fewer taxpayers.

While there have been annual declines in the value of taxable land in DuPage since 2009, King said there are signs property values are recovering. He said the drop in 2013 wasn't as much as it was the previous year.

“Hopefully, the reduction in the value of property in DuPage is slowing down,” King said. “Within a year or two, we should be going back up.”

The total number of taxable parcels in the county increased slightly from 334,799 in 2012 to 334,835 in 2013.

“There's not a lot of vacant land to be developed,” said Paul Hinds, DuPage's chief deputy clerk. At least it's moving in the right direction, he said.

Residents can expect their property tax bills to arrive around May 1.

School districts take 73.32 percent of the tax bill in DuPage. Municipalities get 9.74 percent of the property tax money while other the taxing bodies divvy up the rest.