Hattie Reese lost her three-bedroom, red brick and white stone bungalow at 3106 Monroe St. in Bellwood to foreclosure in 2009.
Over the previous five years, her property taxes had more than doubled-- increasing from $2,884 per year to $6,506.
According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Reese bought the home in 1983 with her husband, Lovell, a mailman with the U.S. Postal Service. He died after a short bout with cancer in Dec. 2003; she could no longer keep up with the payments.
This red and white stone bungalow at 3106 Monroe Street in Bellwood was lost to foreclosure in 2009.
In Bellwood, pop. 19,161, where according to an analysis by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), home prices fell by almost half over the past decade, the story of Hattie Reese, now 76, is a common one.
The 2007 median home price in Bellwood was $217,189. By 2015, it was $124,000, a drop of 43 percent.
But when home prices fell, the budgets of the local governments supported by their property taxes didn’t.
According to the Illinois State Comptroller, the village of Bellwood itself has amassed $193 million in debt. Bellwood School District 88 owes another $30 million--140 percent more than its state mandated debt limit. The average Bellwood household owes $34,627 for the borrowing of those two alone, nearly one-third of their home’s value.
After the real estate downturn, homeowners with far less were stuck paying far more.
The Chicago Tribune reported in 2015 that the effective property tax rate in Bellwood had reached a whopping 5.21 percent.
A typical home buyer who puts 20 percent down on a median-priced Bellwood property today pays $474 in principal and interest, and $538 in property taxes.
A home equity desert
Zillow currently lists 156 Bellwood homes for sale; 106 of them-- 68 percent-- are foreclosures and pre-foreclosures, or homes where the owner is behind on payments and will soon be handing their property back to the bank.
In Jan. 2010, three months after Hattie Reese’s foreclosure, current state representative and then-Proviso Township High School District 209 School Board President Emanuel “Chris” Welch bought her home for $50,000.
Welch partnered on the deal with his brother, Billy Welch, who earned $95,453 last year working in the maintenance department of District 209, according to Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund records.
Today, the Cook County Assessor claims 3106 Monroe is worth $89,580; its 2015 property tax bill was $4,699, an effective tax rate of 5.24 percent.
Tax rates like these, even for politically-connected homeowners like State Rep. Welch, have made actual home equity a scarcity, if not an impossibility, in most West Cook County suburbs.
In 26 of 33 West Cook suburbs analyzed by LGIS, effective property tax rates are 2.5 percent or higher. In 18 of them, they are higher than three percent-- more than three times the national average.
Bellwood is one of six suburbs with rates higher than four percent. There, and in the communities of Stone Park (4.86 percent), Cicero (4.57 percent), Broadview (4.23 percent), Berwyn (4.10 percent) and Maywood (5.29 percent), property taxes have eviscerated home values.
In Maywood, 114 of the 174 homes for sale (65 percent) are foreclosures and pre-foreclosures. One recent sale: $67,500 for a three-bedroom, three-bath at 1447 S. 16th Ave. Its 2015 property tax bill: $5,736, or 8.4 percent of the purchase price.
In Broadview, a four-bedroom, two-bath at 2504 S. 20th Ave. sold for $101,664 on Feb. 28. The seller had paid $63,960 in property taxes on the home over the previous 12 years.
Cicero’s median home price fell 53 percent from 2007 to 2015, from $252,625 to $119,000. In neighboring Berwyn, it fell 42 percent, to $165,000 from $284,632.
In Hillside, where Welch lives-- he paid $499,000 for a 3,268 square home in 2006-- the median price fell 47 percent, from $252,625 to $135,000.
Since Jan. 2016, the highest-priced home sale in Hillside is $300,000. Welch himself paid $9,618 in property taxes in 2015.
West Cook’s homeowner Matrix
The LGIS analysis forecast what west Cook County property values-- and property taxes-- would be in 2023, if the next eight years prove like the last eight.
In ten of the 33 suburbs analyzed, the median homeowner will have paid more than 100 percent of their home’s value in property taxes over the 2007 to 2023 span.
In Stone Park (143 percent), Maywood (138 percent), and Cicero (136 percent), homeowners will approach paying for their homes, one time and a half.
Stone Park homeowners will have paid $113,530 on a home worth $79,537. Unless local government enacts massive tax and spending cuts, their effective tax rate will grow to nearly nine percent.
In Bellwood, homeowners will have paid $103,366 on a home worth $80,926. Their tax rate will skyrocket to 8.5 percent.
Homeowners in all but two West Cook suburbs-- Burr Ridge and Hinsdale, which straddles the Cook-DuPage border-- will pay more than 40 percent of their home’s value in property taxes during the period.
Homeowners in Hinsdale ($242,525/35 percent of their home value), River Forest ($235,824/57 percent), Riverside ($197,392/68 percent), Burr Ridge ($196,685/39 percent), Western Springs ($184,486/41 percent), Oak Park ($181,704/60 percent) and La Grange ($177,755/48 percent) will have paid the most in property taxes during the 2007 to 2015 period.
West Cook County Median Home Prices
All numbers are inflation-adjusted.
| Rank | Community | Jan 2007 | Jan 2015 | CHG |
| 1 | Cicero | $252,625 | $119,000 | -52.9% |
| 2 | Stone Park | $306,351 | $146,000 | -52.3% |
| 3 | Melrose Park | $308,637 | $148,000 | -52.0% |
| 4 | Schiller Park | $328,070 | $160,000 | -51.2% |
| 5 | Northlake | $277,773 | $137,000 | -50.7% |
| 6 | Lyons | $261,770 | $132,000 | -49.6% |
| 7 | Franklin Park | $312,066 | $159,000 | -49.0% |
| 8 | Berkeley | $266,342 | $140,000 | -47.4% |
| 9 | Forest Park | $286,918 | $151,000 | -47.4% |
| 10 | River Grove | $320,068 | $171,000 | -46.6% |
| 11 | Hillside | $252,625 | $135,000 | -46.6% |
| 12 | Maywood | $216,046 | $116,000 | -46.3% |
| 13 | Broadview | $240,051 | $130,000 | -45.8% |
| 14 | Elmwood Park | $360,077 | $199,000 | -44.7% |
| 15 | Bellwood | $217,189 | $124,000 | -42.9% |
| 16 | Indian Head Park | $314,353 | $182,000 | -42.1% |
| 17 | Norridge | $440,094 | $255,000 | -42.1% |
| 18 | Berwyn | $284,632 | $165,000 | -42.0% |
| 19 | Harwood Heights | $418,375 | $244,000 | -41.7% |
| 20 | Willow Springs | $395,513 | $234,000 | -40.8% |
| 21 | Westchester | $330,356 | $203,000 | -38.6% |
| 22 | North Riverside | $313,209 | $200,000 | -36.1% |
| 23 | Countryside | $358,933 | $232,000 | -35.4% |
| 24 | Brookfield | $307,494 | $202,000 | -34.3% |
| 25 | Riverside | $525,826 | $365,000 | -30.6% |
| 26 | River Forest | $714,438 | $510,000 | -28.6% |
| 27 | Hinsdale | $1,073,371 | $802,000 | -25.3% |
| 28 | Elmhurst | $484,674 | $363,000 | -25.1% |
| 29 | La Grange Park | $398,942 | $301,000 | -24.6% |
| 30 | Burr Ridge | $780,737 | $591,000 | -24.3% |
| 31 | Oak Park | $435,521 | $339,000 | -22.2% |
| 32 | Western Springs | $632,134 | $497,000 | -21.4% |
| 33 | La Grange | $521,254 | $413,000 | -20.8% |
West Cook County 2023 Projected Median Sale Price
| Rank | Town | 2023 Projected Median Sale | Prop Taxes Paid 2015-23 | Taxes Paid % |
| 1 | Stone Park | $79,537 | $113,530 | 142.7% |
| 2 | Maywood | $71,196 | $98,182 | 137.9% |
| 3 | Cicero | $64,077 | $87,013 | 135.8% |
| 4 | Bellwood | $80,926 | $103,366 | 127.7% |
| 5 | Broadview | $80,476 | $87,984 | 109.3% |
| 6 | Northlake | $77,239 | $82,200 | 106.4% |
| 7 | Berkeley | $84,120 | $86,912 | 103.3% |
| 8 | Franklin Park | $92,604 | $95,654 | 103.3% |
| 9 | Lyons | $76,087 | $77,510 | 101.9% |
| 10 | Schiller Park | $89,199 | $90,624 | 101.6% |
| 11 | Berwyn | $109,337 | $108,240 | 99.0% |
| 12 | Forest Park | $90,841 | $83,594 | 92.0% |
| 13 | Hillside | $82,466 | $74,088 | 89.8% |
| 14 | River Grove | $104,432 | $89,467 | 85.7% |
| 15 | Melrose Park | $81,126 | $69,146 | 86.2% |
| 16 | Brookfield | $151,688 | $118,938 | 78.4% |
| 17 | Elmwood Park | $125,717 | $96,475 | 76.7% |
| 18 | Riverside | $289,620 | $197,392 | 68.2% |
| 19 | Harwood Heights | $162,667 | $109,312 | 67.2% |
| 20 | Westchester | $142,592 | $91,269 | 64.0% |
| 21 | Norridge | $168,896 | $102,408 | 60.6% |
| 22 | Oak Park | $301,630 | $181,704 | 60.2% |
| 23 | River Forest | $416,160 | $235,824 | 56.7% |
| 24 | Indian Head Park | $120,451 | $66,685 | 55.4% |
| 25 | Willow Springs | $158,254 | $84,989 | 53.7% |
| 26 | North Riverside | $145,985 | $74,240 | 50.9% |
| 27 | La Grange | $374,055 | $177,755 | 47.5% |
| 28 | La Grange Park | $259,602 | $122,808 | 47.3% |
| 29 | Elmhurst | $310,776 | $145,200 | 46.7% |
| 30 | Countryside | $171,414 | $75,354 | 44.0% |
| 31 | Western Springs | $446,671 | $184,486 | 41.3% |
| 32 | Burr Ridge | $511,392 | $196,685 | 38.5% |
| 33 | Hinsdale | $684,988 | $242,525 | 35.4% |
Fastest-spending western Cook County School Districts
School District Local Spending, 2007-2015
| Rank | School District | 2007 Spend | 2015 Spend | CHG |
| 1 | Riverside SD 96 | $9,455,200 | $24,041,177 | +154.3% |
| 2 | La Grange SD 105 South | $12,888,637 | $22,474,149 | +74.4% |
| 3 | Western Springs SD 101 | $9,021,525 | $15,715,075 | +74.2% |
| 4 | River Forest SD 90 | $13,016,371 | $21,689,273 | +66.6% |
| 5 | Willow Springs SD 108 | $2,730,691 | $4,542,546 | +66.4% |
| 6 | Brookfield Lagrange Park SD 95 | $6,953,266 | $10,783,972 | +55.1% |
| 7 | Ridgewood CHSD 234 (Norridge) | $11,943,985 | $17,088,230 | +43.1% |
| 8 | Lyons SD 103 | $16,183,278 | $22,768,389 | +40.7% |
| 9 | Leyden CHSD 212 (Franklin Park) | $49,301,618 | $69,195,919 | +40.4% |
| 10 | Riverside-Brookfield Twp SD 208 | $18,126,497 | $25,334,379 | +39.8% |
| 11 | Komarek SD 94 (North Riverside) | $4,007,591 | $5,521,617 | +37.8% |
| 12 | Pennoyer SD 79 (Norridge) | $2,855,556 | $3,909,710 | +36.9% |
| 13 | LaGrange Highlands SD 106 | $9,025,923 | $12,081,309 | +33.9% |
| 14 | Rhodes SD 84-5 (River Grove) | $6,813,134 | $8,835,972 | +29.7% |
| 15 | Westchester SD 92-5 | $9,941,420 | $12,596,634 | +26.7% |
| 16 | Oak Park ESD 97 | $51,026,501 | $64,304,736 | +26.0% |
| 17 | Lyons Twp HSD 204 (La Grange) | $54,798,004 | $68,948,112 | +25.8% |
| 18 | Mannheim SD 83 (Franklin Park) | $31,889,202 | $39,806,223 | +24.8% |
| 19 | Forest Park SD 91 | $11,829,899 | $14,680,373 | +24.1% |
| 20 | Oak Park-River Forest SD 200 | $46,141,650 | $55,044,364 | +19.3% |
| 21 | Berwyn South SD 100 | $14,407,801 | $16,696,613 | +15.9% |
| 22 | River Grove SD 85-5 | $5,295,021 | $5,838,872 | +10.3% |
| 23 | La Grange SD 102 | $27,600,662 | $30,159,004 | +9.3% |
| 24 | Berkeley SD 87 | $17,949,113 | $19,539,657 | +8.9% |
| 25 | Norridge SD 80 | $8,052,688 | $8,750,500 | +8.7% |
| 26 | Elmwood Park CUSD 401 | $25,740,360 | $27,278,029 | +6.0% |
| 27 | Hillside SD 93 | $6,448,115 | $6,811,796 | +5.6% |
| 28 | Proviso Twp HSD 209 (Forest Park) | $67,148,166 | $70,511,109 | +5.0% |
| 29 | Franklin Park SD 84 | $13,456,350 | $13,986,911 | +3.9% |
| 30 | JS Morton HSD 201 (Cicero) | $56,184,099 | $52,124,723 | -7.2% |
| 31 | Lindop SD 92 (Broadview) | $6,301,408 | $5,646,569 | -10.4% |
| 32 | Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89 | $18,448,108 | $16,199,422 | -12.2% |
| 33 | Bellwood SD 88 | $16,840,809 | $14,000,443 | -16.9% |
| 34 | Berwyn North SD 98 | $11,783,819 | $8,744,905 | -25.8% |
| Total | $673,606,467 | $815,650,712 | +21.1% |
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