Chicagoland Commercial Real Estate searches are often focused on Lake County due to the ease of access to O’Hare, Chicago and Milwaukee. The attraction to Lake County is further enhanced with the strength of the labor pool, high standard of life, abundant amenities and strong business base of existing companies. Due to the high quality of life and some of the top school systems in the country, Lake County is also a magnet to attracting top executives to reside within the county further enhancing the need for commercial property with these decision makers seeking workplaces closer to home (see Article "Scientific Plant Location" ).
Lake County commercial properties are commonly advertised with “Lower Lake County Taxes” which as a whole are true being roughly half of what they would be in Cook County absent of tax incentives such as a 6B. We’ll get into the details of Cook versus collar county taxes in a future article as the issue of this article is to breakdown the tax rates within Lake County and to dispel the misconception that all Lake County commercial property taxes are created equal.
What needs to be understood is that the premier school systems noted above come with a cost and how each community is balanced between density of housing and the balance (or lack thereof) between residential and commercial real estate dictates their tax rate given the fact that schools make up about two-thirds of a tax bill. Lincolnshire for example does not have dense housing, and a tremendous commercial base including the Lincolnshire Corporate Center, the Lincolnshire Commons, the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, and multiple office and industrial projects. All these commercial projects feed the school system’s tax base without sending a single child to school. Strong examples such as this allows for the tax rate to actually decrease over time.
On the flipside, communities with dense housing tax the school systems (no pun intended). These bedroom communities will attract the retail and service users to serve the rooftops but are challenged to bring enough office and industrial product to counter balance the abundant school dollars needed.
As demonstrated on the attached, it appears the further north one goes in Lake County, the higher the tax rate goes with a few exceptions. The tax rate comparison schedule provides a sampling of tax rates throughout the county while also putting the difference to dollars both short and long term. Commercial users and investors need to be aware that there are not only differences in the county, but differences are also frequently found within the same village. The best example of this is comparing the Corporate Woods and the Continental Executive Parke both of Vernon Hills. The Continental Executive Parke is 18% higher than the Corporate Woods. The Corporate Woods is part of the Stevenson school district while the Continental Executive Parke is part of the newer Vernon Hills High School. Maybe not a great deal on the surface, but the first year savings on a five million dollar assessment would be $18,283. Based on the assumptions shown on the attached schedule, this difference compounds over time to the point of a $394,528 savings over a fifteen-year period. Not All Lake County Real Estate Tax Rates are Created Equal!
Download LakeCountyTaxRateTable.pdf
Written by: David S. LeCavalier, CCIM
Vice President, Van Vlissingen and Co.
The above information is subject to verification and no liability for errors or omissions is assumed. Actual future assessed valuations, multipliers, and tax rates may vary significantly from projections assumed.
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