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Oak Park and Evanston Both Have "High Taxes." They're High for Completely Different Reasons.

Writer: The Biggest News Jason Rosenberg
The Biggest News Jason Rosenberg
11 hours ago
8 min read

Ask anyone in Chicagoland which suburbs have high property taxes and two names come up fast: Oak Park and Evanston. They get lumped together all the time. Both border Chicago. Both have beautiful old houses, busy downtowns, and strong opinions at village board meetings.

But when you actually run the numbers, they're not the same story at all. One town has a genuinely high tax rate. The other mostly has expensive houses. And the reasons behind each one tell you a lot about how property taxes work everywhere in Cook County.

Here's the plain-English version.

Start here: the same $500,000 house in six places

The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan budget watchdog in Chicago, estimates an "effective tax rate" for towns across the region. That's the share of a home's market value that goes to property taxes each year. It's the fairest way to compare towns side by side.

Here's what their latest full numbers (tax year 2022) mean for a $500,000 home, before any exemptions:

Town

Effective rate

Yearly tax on $500K

Per month

Chicago

1.69%

$8,450

$704

Glenview

1.83%

$9,150

$763

Evanston

2.06%

$10,300

$858

Arlington Heights

2.28%

$11,400

$950

Oak Park

2.89%

$14,450

$1,204

Harvey

4.74%

$23,700

$1,975

Rates from the Civic Federation's 2013–2022 effective tax rate report, residential property. Each rate comes from one tax code in each town, so your exact address may differ. Exemptions (like the Homeowner Exemption) lower the real number.

Look where Evanston lands. Its rate sits much closer to Glenview's than to Oak Park's. On the same $500,000 house, the Oak Park owner pays about $4,150 more a year than the Evanston owner, and about $6,000 more a year than the Chicago owner.

So why does Evanston have the reputation? Because Evanston homes tend to cost a lot. Take an $800,000 Evanston house at 2.06% and you get a bill of roughly $16,480. That's a big number, but it's big because the house is expensive, not because the rate is unusual.

That's the first lesson: a big tax bill and a high tax rate are not the same thing.

Why Oak Park's rate is high

1. It's almost all houses

This is the biggest reason, and most people never hear about it.

Every town has a total amount of money its schools, village, parks and library need to collect. That total gets split across every taxable property in town. If there are lots of offices, stores and factories, they carry a big chunk. If it's mostly homes, homeowners carry almost all of it.

In Cook County, business property is taxed on 25% of its value, while homes are taxed on 10%. So a town with a strong business base gets a lot of help from it.

Oak Park doesn't have much of that help. A Moody's credit report on the village described its tax base as largely residential, with commercial property making up only about 9% of total value. Compare that with Evanston, where homes make up about 70% of the tax base after the latest reassessment. Evanston has a real downtown office and retail base sharing the load. Oak Park mostly doesn't.

Local writers have described it as a chicken-and-egg problem: taxes are high because there's little commercial property, and it's harder to attract commercial property because taxes are high.

2. Schools are most of the bill

In Oak Park, the two school districts, Elementary District 97 and Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200, together take roughly 70% of the property tax dollars that go to local governments. The village government gets well under 20%.

That matters because when people get angry at "the village" over their tax bill, the village is actually a smaller slice than most assume.

3. Several separate governments, each with its own budget

An Oak Park bill includes the village, two school districts, the park district, the library, the township, and county-level bodies. Each one sets its own budget and its own levy. Oak Park's township assessor has pointed out that the village government and the library are both exempt from the state's tax cap, so they aren't limited the way some other bodies are.

Why Evanston's bills are big

1. A lot of the land doesn't pay property tax at all

Evanston is home to Northwestern University, which doesn't pay property tax on the buildings it uses for the university. That exemption goes all the way back to the school's original state charter. A 2002 court case described the university as owning about 240 tax-exempt acres in Evanston.

Add churches, hospitals, schools, parks and other nonprofits, and a former Evanston official once estimated that roughly 45% of the city's land is used for tax-exempt purposes. That's an older estimate, but the point stands: when a big share of the land pays nothing, everyone else covers more.

Northwestern does make voluntary payments and pays other city taxes and fees, and people have argued for years about whether that's enough. Reasonable people land on both sides of that one.

2. Schools are the biggest piece here too

Using the city's own breakdown of the tax year 2023 rate, School District 65 and Evanston Township High School District 202 together make up about two-thirds of the total rate. The City of Evanston itself is only about 16% of the bill.

3. The city raised its levy for the first time in years

Evanston held its own property tax levy roughly flat from 2020 through 2025. For 2026, the City Council approved an increase that the city estimated would cost the owner of a median-priced home about $162 a year.

4. The 2025 reassessment shifted more of the load onto homes

Evanston was reassessed in 2025, and those new values showed up for the first time on the tax bills that came out this summer. After appeals, residential values in Evanston rose about 20%, while all other property rose about 12.5%. That pushed homeowners' share of the city's tax base from 69% up to about 70.4%.

Why the gap? Business owners won bigger reductions on appeal. According to the Evanston RoundTable, the Board of Review cut the reassessment increases on non-residential property by more than 60%, but cut them on homes by only about 11%.

The one thing everybody gets wrong about reassessment

When your town is reassessed, it feels like the county is raising your taxes. It isn't, at least not directly.

Think of it like splitting a dinner bill. The total check is set by what your schools, village, parks and library decide to spend. Reassessment doesn't change the size of the check. It changes who pays which share of it.

Oak Park's township assessor laid this out after the 2023 reassessment. Oak Park's total taxable value went up about 29%, but the total tax burden didn't change because of it. About 35% of Oak Park homeowners actually paid less that year. If your home's value went up faster than the town average, your share went up. If it went up slower, your share went down.

What's coming next

Oak Park: Oak Park is part of the 2026 reassessment of the south and west suburbs. Those new values will show up on tax bills in 2027. If you own in Oak Park, that's the next big moment for your bill. We covered how that reassessment works, and the timing of the assessor changeover, in Fritz Kaegi Just Priced Your House. Pat Hynes Will Send You the Bill.

Evanston: The 2025 reassessment is already on the bills that just came due. The next Evanston reassessment would normally come around in 2028.

Here's a twist: the rates have actually been going down

This surprises people. According to the Civic Federation, Oak Park's residential effective rate fell about 5% over ten years (from 3.05% in 2013 to 2.89% in 2022). Evanston's fell about 10% (from 2.30% to 2.06%).

So why do bills keep going up? Because home values went up faster. A slightly lower rate on a much more valuable house still means a bigger bill.

Are high taxes a bad thing? Two honest views

The case that they're worth it: Many families choose Oak Park and Evanston knowingly. The taxes pay for things people value: neighborhood schools, libraries, parks, and services. Buyers keep showing up, and homes in both towns still sell. To a lot of residents, the bill is the price of the lifestyle.

The case that they're a problem: High taxes can push out longtime owners, retirees on fixed incomes, and first-time buyers. Every dollar of tax is a dollar that can't go toward a mortgage, which shrinks what buyers can afford. Some residents and local officials have argued for more cooperation between taxing bodies or more commercial development to share the load.

Both views are real, and where you land probably depends on what you're getting for the money.

If you're buying in Oak Park or Evanston

  • Look at the actual tax bill, not a listing estimate. You can see any property's bill on the Cook County Treasurer's website.

  • Check which exemptions the current owner has. Senior exemptions and freezes leave with the seller, so your bill could be higher than theirs.

  • Know when the next reassessment hits. For Oak Park, the new values land on 2027 bills.

  • Budget taxes into your monthly payment. An extra $500 a month in taxes is roughly $75,000 less you can borrow at a 7% mortgage rate. That can change which homes fit your budget.

If you're selling in Oak Park or Evanston

  • Make sure you're not over-assessed. A successful appeal can lower the bill buyers see on your listing, and that helps.

  • Make sure your exemptions are on the bill. A missing Homeowner Exemption makes your house look more expensive to own than it really is.

  • Price with taxes in mind. Buyers compare total monthly cost, not just price. Your agent should know how your tax bill stacks up against nearby towns.

  • Help buyers see what the taxes pay for. Location, walkability, transit and community are part of the value.

Keep more of your sale price

Property taxes are one cost you can't control. Your commission is one you can.

I list homes at a low commission. You still get full service: professional photography, 3D Matterport tours, and full online marketing.

And two things most agents don't offer:

  • Zero Commission Clause: If you find your own buyer, you pay me nothing.

  • Cancel anytime: No long lock-in contract.

Thinking about selling in Oak Park, Evanston, or anywhere in Chicagoland? I'll give you a free, honest home value estimate and walk you through what your tax bill means for buyers.

Call or text 312.882.9797 or visit https://www.jasonrosenbergrealestate.com/

Jason RosenbergThe Rosenberg Group @ Infiniti PropertiesRanked in the Top 5% of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®Over $100 Million in Sales

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