Recent Blog Posts
Purchasing a home is both an exciting milestone and an extremely stressful event. Even when things are running normally in the United States, people who are buying a property must deal with numerous moving parts and expenses. With nearly every facet of our lives upended by the global COVID-19 pandemic, prospective owners are faced with… Read More »
Governments and even some private businesses have worked to ease the burden on people who are struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For people who are concerned about losing their home after being laid off or seeing their business revenue plummet, programs have been established to offer rent and mortgage relief. While many will… Read More »
Throughout greater Chicago, municipalities are struggling with debt and making hard choices about whether to raise residential property taxes in response. Naperville plans a modest 3.3 percent rate increase, while Park Ridge will hike property taxes a stunning 22 percent. Woodridge decided to spare its residents a rate increase and instead will carry a budget… Read More »
Airport noise has long been recognized as a factor in assessing home value. So, in October of 2013, when O’Hare International Airport redirected 70 percent of its traffic, residents of newly-affected neighborhoods decided they had a basis for requesting property tax relief. In March of 2014, the Cook County Board of Review agreed and granted… Read More »
After the recent Cook County property reassessment, many commercial and residential property owners are shaking their heads, wondering how they are going to deal with staggering increases. On the commercial side, Chicago already has the second-highest property tax rates in the country, but annual, single-digit increases keep coming as city and state governments look for… Read More »
Huffington Post publishes Maureen Pikarski’s editorial commemorating Immigrant Heritage Month: www.huffingtonpost.com/Maureen-Pikarski