Collection Rates Take a Hit in 2024

Cook County property tax delinquency in 2024 — a year of tightly spaced bills and a record residential tax increase in the south suburbs — rose to the highest levels in more than a decade.

The collection rate one month after bills were due stood at 95.1%, a 1.3% decrease from the same point in the previous year, reflecting an additional $225 million [1] that went uncollected because 22,500 more property owners were delinquent. [2]

Two unusual circumstances likely contributed to the collection drop: the interval between final annual bills in 2023 and 2024 — for tax years 2022 and 2023 — was the shortest in at least 40 years, and the median residential bill in the south and southwest suburbs grew by a record 19.9%. [3]

Economic factors, such as higher consumer prices, a financially struggling office and retail building sector and a lower interest rate on delinquent payments, [4] may have played a role as well.

Those circumstances and factors are similar to 2012, when the final bill also came after a shorter-than-normal interval between second-installment bills, and taxpayers were still struggling with the effects of the Great Recession. That year, the collection rate one month after bills were due was 95%.

The biggest falloff in collections in 2024 occurred in the south and southwest suburbs, where they were down by 1.5% — fueled by a 27.7% increase in the number of residential property delinquencies — in the wake of a reassessment process that shifted much of the tax burden from businesses to homeowners. In Dixmoor, where the median residential bill increased by 122%, [5] the collection rate fell by 8.2%, to 73.7%.

South suburban seniors, in particular, seemed to have had a hard time paying. The number of delinquencies on properties with senior exemptions — which indicate it’s the primary residence of someone 65 or older — by 50.6%. But many, if not most, senior delinquencies will be reversed after assessment errors are fixed. [6]

The south suburban falloff in 2024 collections in the south suburbs represented more bad news for a region where many suburbs have long collected far less of the property taxes billed than their counterparts in the rest of the county. [7] Those low collection rates make it difficult for schools to provide well-rounded education programs and municipalities to deliver basic services, like police and fire protection [8] and clean, reliable drinking water. [9]

All municipalities with the lowest collection rates in the county, except for west suburban Maywood, are in the south and southwest suburbs (Table 1).

Table 1: Municipalities with the Lowest Collection Rates Tax Year 2023, 31 Days After Second Installment Due Date
Rank	Municipality	Taxable Properties	Total Billed	Total Paid	Collection Rate
1	Ford Heights	1,590	$4.39 Million	$1.38 Million	31.38%
2	Robbins	3,994	$8.02 Million	$4.02 Million	50.06%
3	Harvey	12,904	$57.78 Million	$30.15 Million	52.19%
4	Phoenix	1,309	$3.88 Million	$2.36 Million	60.78%
5	Riverdale	4,525	$29.69 Million	$19.95 Million	67.19%
6	Willow Springs	3,015	$29.04 Million	$21.31 Million	73.38%
7	Dixmoor	1,781	$7.58 Million	$5.59 Million	73.68%
8	Calumet Park	2,965	$17.44 Million	$13.60 Million	77.98%
9	Chicago Heights	11,753	$84.50 Million	$66.74 Million	78.99%
10	Dolton	8,977	$59.60 Million	$47.12 Million	79.06%
11	Markham	7,499	$52.89 Million	$43.05 Million	81.40%
12	Calumet City	13,401	$97.49 Million	$79.40 Million	81.45%
13	Burnham	1,875	$12.67 Million	$10.34 Million	81.65%
14	Park Forest	5,565	$43.93 Million	$36.09 Million	82.16%
15	Maywood	7,298	$57.53 Million	$47.31 Million	82.23%
16	South Chicago Heights	2,027	$11.65 Million	$9.63 Million	82.63%
17	Steger	2,930	$7.81 Million	$6.46 Million	82.66%
18	Blue Island	7,250	$48.57 Million	$40.52 Million	83.43%
19	Sauk Village	3,378	$18.30 Million	$15.92 Million	86.99%
20	Posen	2,680	$10.29 Million	$9.00 Million	87.47%
	Cook County	1,772,246	$18.32 Billion	$17.42 Billion	95.09%

 

Collection rates also were down by more than 1% in the city of Chicago and in the north and northwest suburbs, but not by as much in the south and southwest suburbs, where the overall collection rate already was low compared to the rest of the county.

Economically struggling, low-income communities continued to have the highest rates of tax delinquency. But tax delinquency also increased for homeowners in middle- and high-income neighborhoods. Increased tax delinquency for high-value commercial properties also contributed to lower collection rates [10] across the county.

The increase in tax delinquency puts more property owners at risk of having their taxes offered at the annual tax sale, which can ultimately lead to the loss of one’s property. Furthermore, local taxing agencies may be strained by lower-than-expected property tax allocations.

The Treasurer's Office bills and collects property taxes for all local taxing districts in Cook County. For the 2023 tax year, those districts sought $18.3 billion from owners of nearly 1.8 million properties. Bills were mailed near the end of June 2024 with a due date of Aug. 1, 2024.

The office analyzed how much money was collected 31 days after bills were due. It compared those collections to those from previous years at the same point in the collection cycle.

Property owners still have time to pay their delinquent taxes to avoid the tax sale that is held about 13 months after the due date, but interest of 0.75% per month will be added to the tax bill until it is paid.

In most years, collection rates rise until they peak at about 98% to 99% during the tax sale.

The Treasurer’s Office recently released a payment planning tool to help delinquent taxpayers pay off their taxes and interest before the sale.

Countywide Collections

As of Sept. 1, 2024, the county had collected 95.1% of property taxes billed for tax year 2023. [11]

This collection rate is the lowest in more than a decade (Table 2). The last time the collection rate fell below 95.1% was tax year 2011.

Table 2: Countywide Collection Rates 31 Days After Due Date
Tax Year	Amount Billed	Amount Collected	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change
2023	$18.32 Billion	$17.42 Billion	95.09%	-1.27%
2022	$17.62 Billion	$16.97 Billion	96.32%	-0.12%
2021	$16.71 Billion	$16.12 Billion	96.44%	0.79%
2020	$16.10 Billion	$15.40 Billion	95.68%	-0.86%
2019	$15.56 Billion	$15.02 Billion	96.52%	0.52%
2018	$14.94 Billion	$14.34 Billion	96.02%	-0.11%
2017	$14.41 Billion	$13.85 Billion	96.13%	-0.15%
2016	$13.72 Billion	$13.21 Billion	96.27%	0.40%
2015	$13.00 Billion	$12.47 Billion	95.89%	0.31%
2014	$12.35 Billion	$11.81 Billion	95.59%	0.20%
2013	$12.09 Billion	$11.53 Billion	95.40%	-0.17%
2012	$11.96 Billion	$11.43 Billion	95.56%	0.58%
2011	$11.70 Billion	$11.12 Billion	95.01%	-0.72%
2010	$11.64 Billion	$11.14 Billion	95.70%	-0.28%

 

Collection rates decreased for all types of property (Table 3). Residential properties, which make up most of the taxable property in the county, paid 95.5% of the amount billed, a 1% decrease from the previous year. Commercial and industrial properties, the second-largest property class, had a 94.4% collection rate, 1.6% lower. Vacant land continued to have the lowest collection rate among major property classes, falling by 3% to less than 70%.

The collection rate on large apartment buildings declined slightly, with one high-value property that had not paid its tax bill accounting for about half of the decrease. Similarly, a few large tax delinquent properties contributed to lower collection rates on incentive properties, which are given tax breaks to foster economic development and create affordable housing.

Table 3: Tax Year 2023 Collection Rates by Property Class 31 Days after Due Date
Major Class	Taxable Properties	Amount Billed	Amount Collected	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change from 2022
Class 1 - Vacant	63,448	$113.41 Million	$79.08 Million	69.73%	-2.99%
Class 2 - Residential	1,591,921	$10.44 Billion	$9.97 Billion	95.46%	-1.03%
Class 3 - Multi-Family Residential	19,085	$1.10 Billion	$1.07 Billion	97.17%	-1.07%
Class 4 - Not-for-Profit	434	$25.42 Million	$23.19 Million	91.21%	-5.93%
Class 5 - Commercial/Industrial	91,852	$6.21 Billion	$5.87 Billion	94.43%	-1.57%
Class 6 - Industrial Incentive	2,397	$257.39 Million	$252.77 Million	98.20%	-1.64%
Class 7 - Commercial Incentive	305	$66.67 Million	$62.07 Million	93.10%	-6.99%
Class 8 - Cmrcl./Indstrl. Incentive	1,847	$77.37 Million	$74.91 Million	96.82%	-5.59%
Class 9 - Multi-Family Incentive	957	$21.87 Million	$21.40 Million	97.85%	-4.59%
County Total	1,772,246	$18.32 Billion	$17.42 Billion	95.09%	-1.27%

 

Collections by Assessment Region

Cook County is divided into three regions for property tax assessments, with each region being completely reassessed every three years. The regions comprise the city of Chicago, all suburbs north of North Avenue and all suburbs south of North Avenue. [12] All three regions saw a decrease in collection rates from 2023 to 2024 (Table 4).

Table 4: Tax Year 2023 Collection Rates by Assessment Region 31 Days after Due Date
Triennial	Taxable Properties	Amount Billed	Amount Collected	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change from 2022
City of Chicago	833,497	$8.34 Billion	$7.97 Billion	95.53%	-1.23%
North Suburbs	442,356	$5.60 Billion	$5.43 Billion	96.88%	-1.14%
South Suburbs	496,393	$4.37 Billion	$4.02 Billion	91.96%	-1.46%
County Total	1,772,246	$18.32 Billion	$17.42 Billion	95.09%	-1.27%

 

Property owners in the south and southwest suburbs, which were reassessed for the 2024 tax bills, paid 92% of the taxes they owed, the lowest among the three regions. The south suburbs suffered the steepest decrease in collection rates from 2023 to 2024. Driving the overall collection rate further down in the south region was a 27.7% increase in the number of tax delinquent residential properties.

The collection rate decline was lowest in the north and northwest suburbs, where property owners paid 96.9% of their taxes. Collections on all commercial and industrial properties [13] were down more than 2%, the steepest decrease in the region.

As in the north suburbs, commercial and industrial properties caused the bulk of Chicago’s decreased collections. In 2024, 230 commercial, industrial and incentive properties owed more than $100,000. That’s 88 more than in 2023.

Collections by Municipality

Collection rates increased in 14 of 136 Cook County municipalities, including those in some suburbs with chronically low collection rates that saw significant improvements. (Table 5).

Ford Heights continued to have the lowest collection rate in the county, but it also improved the most, increasing nearly 10% from the previous year. More than 50 chronically delinquent properties were reclassified from residential to vacant in the community. [14] The resulting lower tax bills for those properties, along with the addition of six commercial properties, shifted a portion of the local tax burden to property owners who were more likely to pay. The collection rate on both residential and commercial properties improved.

Table 5: Municipalities with the Highest Collection Rate Increases – Tax Year 2023 [15]
Municipality	Taxable Properties	Amount Billed	Amount Collected (31 days after due)	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change from 2022
Ford Heights	1,590	$4.39 Million	$1.38 Million	31.38%	9.69%
Riverdale	4,525	$29.69 Million	$19.95 Million	67.19%	6.31%
Burnham	1,875	$12.67 Million	$10.34 Million	81.65%	4.15%
Phoenix	1,309	$3.88 Million	$2.36 Million	60.78%	2.22%
Glenwood	3,645	$26.43 Million	$24.30 Million	91.94%	1.70%
Dolton	8,977	$59.60 Million	$47.12 Million	79.07%	1.43%
Hillside	3,231	$39.64 Million	$37.97 Million	95.78%	0.89%
Kenilworth	960	$32.86 Million	$31.95 Million	97.21%	0.80%
Calumet City	13,401	$97.49 Million	$79.40 Million	81.45%	0.62%
Schiller Park	4,085	$53.76 Million	$51.85 Million	96.44%	0.41%

 

Riverdale, Dolton, Calumet City and Burnham — all south suburban communities that border the city of Chicago — saw collection rate increases driven by improved collections on commercial and industrial properties. The residential collection rate, however, fell by between 1.4% and 3.7% in the same communities. Those opposing trends came after median residential bills in each of those suburbs grew by more than 25%, while the median commercial and industrial bills declined by at least 20%. [16]

All communities with an improvement above 0.5% are in the south and west suburbs, with the exception of Kenilworth, a small village on the North Shore.

Nearly 90% of municipalities collected a smaller percentage of what they billed than they did the previous year, with the steepest decreases well above 4% (Table 6).

Table 6: Municipalities with the Highest Collection Rate Decrease – Tax Year 2023 [17]
Municipality	Taxable Properties	Amount Billed	Amount Collected (31 days after due)	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change from 2022
Willow Springs	3,015	$29.04 Million	$21.31 Million	73.38%	-23.83%
Country Club Hills	6,189	$56.57 Million	$49.85 Million	88.12%	-9.56%
Dixmoor	1,781	$7.58 Million	$5.59 Million	73.68%	-8.18%
South Barrington	2,321	$40.66 Million	$36.56 Million	89.92%	-8.12%
Steger	2,930	$7.81 Million	$6.46 Million	82.66%	-5.25%
Robbins	3,994	$8.02 Million	$4.02 Million	50.06%	-5.10%
Blue Island	7,250	$48.57 Million	$40.52 Million	83.43%	-5.02%
River Grove	3,423	$33.68 Million	$31.36 Million	93.10%	-4.43%
South Chicago Heights	2,027	$11.65 Million	$9.63 Million	82.63%	-4.31%
Stickney	2,351	$18.97 Million	$16.85 Million	88.79%	-4.25%

 

Many of the biggest decreases were caused by bills going unpaid on large commercial properties. In Willow Springs, a newly built apartment and townhome complex had a nearly $7 million unpaid tax bill that almost singlehandedly drove down the village’s collection rate by 23.8%. [18] Two north and northwest suburbs, South Barrington and River Grove, were among the top 10 for delinquency increases, because the owners of two shopping centers failed to pay large tax bills. [19]

Other significant drops in collection rates occurred in south suburban communities hit with some of the biggest residential tax bill increases in the county. The median residential property tax bill in Dixmoor, Robbins, Country Club Hills and Blue Island — all of which also landed in the top 10 for delinquency increases —went up by more than 30% in 2024. [20]

Collections by Chicago Region

In Chicago, collection rates dropped the most on the far South Side, followed by central Chicago, which includes the Central Business District and near South and North sides (Table 7).

In both regions, commercial tax delinquency drove lower collections. [21] In central Chicago, unpaid bills of more than $1 million on large office buildings, such as the financially troubled Burnham Center, [22] contributed to a 1.8% lower commercial collection rate.

Table 7:  Chicago Region Collection Rates 31 Days after Due Date – Tax Year 2023
Chicago Region [23]	Taxable Properties	Amount Billed	Amount Collected	Collection Rate	Collection Rate % Change from 2022
Far South Chicago	95,308	$0.27 Billion	$0.24 Billion	89.64%	-1.55%
Central Chicago	117,050	$2.89 Billion	$2.80 Billion	96.79%	-1.48%
Grand Total	833,497	$8.34 Billion	$7.97 Billion	95.53%	-1.23%
Southwest Chicago	104,575	$0.51 Billion	$0.48 Billion	94.71%	-1.21%
South Chicago	91,366	$0.36 Billion	$0.32 Billion	87.90%	-1.16%
West Chicago	129,290	$1.50 Billion	$1.43 Billion	94.99%	-1.14%
Northwest Chicago	148,036	$1.21 Billion	$1.17 Billion	96.02%	-0.99%
North Chicago	147,872	$1.59 Billion	$1.54 Billion	96.38%	-0.98%

 

The residential collection rate decreased by less than 1% in all city regions. Collections on vacant land fell more in the city than in the suburbs, with collection rates falling 6.5% to 71%.

Collections by Taxing District

Collection rates of individual taxing agencies — like school districts, municipalities and park districts — typically mirror the overall rate in the communities where they are located; taxing agencies in a municipality with a low collection rate also will have low collection rates.

For the county’s largest taxing districts, even a slight dip in collection rates can cause a shortfall that is tens of millions of dollars higher than the previous year. A drop of 1.2% in the 2024 collection rate for Chicago Public Schools added more than $30 million to the amount of money that went uncollected in 2024.

The Calendar Squeeze

A shortened period between final annual tax bills likely contributed to lower collection rates to date this year.

State law [24] requires that Cook County set the first installment due date in early March, and the second and final installment due date in early August.

In recent years, however, the Cook County schedule was modified because of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and software issues that stymied communication between two key property tax offices: the Assessor and the Board of Review assessment appeal agency. Second installments from tax year 2019 [25] to tax year 2022 were delayed by two to five months (Figure 1).

Cook County taxing agencies in 2024 eliminated those delays. For the first time since 2019, the first installment and second installment were due on March 1 and Aug. 1.

But the previous year, the final payments weren’t due until Dec. 1, leaving just three months until the first property tax payments [26] were due this year. And the final payment was due just eight months after the previous year’s last payment — the shortest interval since at least 1977, according to Treasurer’s Office records. That meant taxpayers had to pay three tax bills in just 244 days.

The last time a similar calendar squeeze like this occurred was from 2011 to 2012, when the second installment due dates were about nine months apart. In 2012, the collection rate was 95%, a tenth of a percentage point lower than in 2024.

Homeowners in Southland Struggling to Pay

More than one in 10 households in the south and southwest suburbs still owed taxes in 2024, a 27.4% increase from the previous year (Table 8).

The biggest increases in tax delinquency occurred in census tracts with higher median household incomes than the county as a whole. [27] Large residential tax increases in 2024, paired with the shortened payment timeline, may have made it difficult for those property owners to pay their taxes on time.

Table 8: Tax Delinquency for South and Southwest Suburban Residential Properties, Tax Year 2023 By Median Household Income
Tract Median Household Income [28]	Median Billed Amt	Median Bill % Change	Taxed Properties	Delinquent Count	% Delinquent	% Increase in Delinquent Rate
Under 50% of County Median	$2,973.22	44.06%	9,162	4,089	44.63%	17.96%
50-75%	$4,485.57	31.39%	81,688	16,354	20.02%	28.72%
75-100%	$5,782.08	22.71%	138,717	16,724	12.06%	25.05%
100-125%	$6,244.32	18.19%	98,743	8,131	8.23%	32.67%
125-150%	$7,346.24	17.77%	59,884	4,003	6.69%	32.26%
150% or more	$10,244.02	9.07%	52,984	3,158	5.96%	29.08%
No Data [29]	$5,514.23	42.38%	848	93	10.97%	48.98%
Total	$6,111.78	19.85%	442,026	52,552	11.89%	27.43%

 

Residents in low-income census tracts struggle each year to pay their bills by the due date. In 2024, even fewer were able to do so. More than 22% of south and southwest suburban residential property owners in tracts with household incomes below 75% of the county median had not paid their full tax bill, up from 17.8% last year.

In one Calumet City census tract, the median residential tax bill increased from 2023 to 2024 by more than 87%, to $5,915.7. That’s about 10% of that tract’s median household income. [30] A year earlier, the median bill came in at just 5.3% of the tract’s median income. [31] Unsurprisingly, about one in five households in this tract were delinquent, up 25.8% from last year.

 

Lower income homeowners in other areas of the county, where property tax rates are lower and residential bills did not spike this year, also had difficulty paying their bills. Indeed, median household income is directly correlated with residential property tax delinquency across the county (Figure 2).

In the highly segregated Chicago area,[32] lower income census tracts tend to have predominantly minority populations, so it follows that property owners in communities of color would have a hard time paying their tax bills. The delinquency rate in census tracts with majority Black populations was 19.3%, compared to 9.9% in predominantly Latino tracts and just 6.1% in majority white tracts (Figure 3).

Properties Without a Mortgage

Property owners who do not pay their taxes through a mortgage company fueled the increase in tax delinquency. [33] The number of payments by cash, check, credit card, debit card and electronic check decreased by more than 2% in 2024, while the number of payments by mortgage companies slightly increased.

South suburban seniors, who often do not pay through a mortgage company, saw high increases in tax delinquency. The number of properties with senior exemptions [34] with unpaid bills in that area jumped by 50.6%, meaning an additional 3,868 seniors couldn’t pay their bills on time.

Most of these senior homeowners, however, received or are likely to receive a certificate of error — an after-billing correction to an assessed value — that lowers or eliminates their tax delinquency.

In 2023, more than 80% of senior properties in Cook County with unpaid taxes 31 days after the due date later received a certificate of error. In 2024, nearly half of senior properties with outstanding taxes have already received a certificate of error that will lower or eliminate their tax delinquency.

Properties owned by seniors frequently receive certificates of error because the property owner did not receive an exemption to which they were entitled. While the homeowner senior exemptions automatically renew every year, many seniors also qualify for the “senior freeze” and some qualify for the longtime homeowner’s exemption, both of which require applications every year. [35]

Still, significantly higher residential bills in this region may have left some south suburban seniors unable to pay, even if they weren’t missing an exemption. Among the nearly 5,500 senior homeowners who had not obtained a certificate of error on their property, the median tax bill increased by $1,235 to $4,650, or 36.2%. The total amount billed to all those homeowners increased by 29.4%.

Less Payments on High Value Properties

Increased delinquencies, however, were not confined to low-income households. The number of delinquent high-value properties with outstanding bills of more than $100,000 increased to 682 from 500 in 2024. More than 21% of the county’s uncollected taxes resulted from unpaid bills on those properties (Table 9). That’s up from less than 18% in 2024. More than half of all delinquent taxes still owed were due on properties with unpaid amounts of more than $10,000.

Table 9: Tax Delinquent Properties by Tax Owed 31 Days after Due Date, Tax Year 2023
Amount Owed	Count of Properties	Sum of Unpaid Taxes	Share of County's Unpaid Taxes	Shift from Tax Year 2022
Under $100	7,010	$0.29 Million	0.03%	-0.01%
$100-$1,000	60,672	$32.26 Million	3.49%	-0.90%
$1,000-$5,000	88,939	$229.48 Million	24.79%	-1.80%
$5,000-$10,000	25,185	$173.00 Million	18.69%	1.39%
$10,000-$50,000	12,354	$224.83 Million	24.29%	-1.48%
$50,000-$100,000	1,003	$68.24 Million	7.37%	-0.74%
Above $100,000	682	$197.46 Million	21.33%	3.52%
County Total	195,845	$925.56 Million	100.00%

Higher office and retail vacancies, in both Chicago [36] and its suburbs, [37] in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to higher delinquency rates among more expensive properties — which result in greater amounts of money going uncollected. Although 80% of delinquent properties were billed less than $5,000, they accounted for only 28.3% of uncollected taxes.

Other Economic Factors

Although difficult to measure, there are other factors that could have affected the collection rate.

Although an inflation rate that soared as high as 8% in 2022 has eased dramatically, prices for everyday goods and services are significantly higher than they were before the pandemic. Those higher prices may be draining the pocketbooks of many homeowners, leaving less than is needed to cover the tax bill.

The monthly interest rate on late payments for the 2024 bills now is 0.75% per month, or 9% a year — half of what it was on previous bills. As a result, some property owners may be choosing to pay off other bills with higher interest rates on late payments before they tackle their tax debt.

By Christopher Silber, Treasurer’s Office Research Team

9/20/2024

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