It’s no secret that property taxes in Cook County are high. The contributing factors behind this are many, for which I don’t have the expertise to correctly articulate. However, a significant piece of legislation passed by Illinois State legislatures in 2022 provides a much needed lifeline.

The new program that’s commonly known as The Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program, established by state statute, aims to provide property tax relief to boost the creation, rehabilitation, and maintenance of affordable housing in Cook County. This was also born In response to the limited growth and demand surpassing supply in the longstanding Class 9 program.

Starting with the 2022 assessment year, the program has offered property owners the opportunity to decrease the assessments on their multifamily properties if owners “show that they have made substantial improvements to their rental units, that they are maintaining the property, and that units are rented to households with qualifying household income paying no more than 30% of their income for housing, among other criteria.”

There are three different tiers of assessment reductions that owners are eligible for, depending on the scale of the improvements made to their property in combination with the percentage of units at their properties they elect to maintain as affordable. These incentives also come with long term extension options so long as the requirements remain in place.

Clients of Interra have benefited greatly from the utilization of this program. Not only has the program helped to boost their bottom line through the reduction of their property tax burdens, it’s also allowed them to make more financial sense of new investment opportunities which already were in desperate need of repairs. At the same time, this ultimately serves to enhance the physical state of Chicago’s rental housing stock and provide the best living conditions to the City’s renters who are often the most vulnerable.

As I have come to market with properties that have been awarded acceptance into the program, its helped to intrigue investors in the opportunities knowing that they can underwrite property taxes with less volatility.

This has been a welcome example of good work the private sector and government can do when incentives are aligned.

For more information on this program, make sure to contact me at lfryman@interrarealty.com.

Lucas Fryman is a Managing Partner at Interra Realty. Lucas joined Interra in 2016 and graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Political Science. He is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Illinois.