Cook County contains 59,886 vacant taxable land parcels

A vacant lot
A vacant lot (source: Cook County Assessor)

The current locally assessed value of these 59,886 parcels totals $490.23 million. By ordinance, these assessments are 10% of what the Assessor estimates to be the market value of these parcels, implying that they’re worth $4.902 billion.  Of course there’s also a “multiplier” of 3.0163, meaning the taxable value is $490 million X 3.0163 =$1.478 billion. Tax rates vary around the County, but in Chicago currently (before expected increases) is 7.02%.   Meaning that owners of vacant land need to pay $1.54 billion X 7.02% = $103 million.

The County Board decided that vacant land, like residential real estate, should be assessed at 10% of estimated value.  Commercial and industrial land is assessed at 25% of value (with exceptions for special favors).  The Board could, by ordinance, apply this 25% factor to vacant land also.  Which would raise something like $490 million X 1.5 X 3.0163 X.0702 = $155 million/year.  Without taxing any housing; without taxing any business. Without taxing anybody who can’t afford to own land. Now $155 million may not seem like a lot, given that the City of Chicago is running something approaching a $1 billion annual deficit, Chicago Public Schools hundreds of millions more, and of course many suburban Cook County taxing bodies are in deficit. But $155 million is just the start.

If you are owner of a vacant lot, and you receive notice that your taxes have more than doubled, what will you do?  You could sell the lot, but who would buy it?  Probably somebody who wants to build housing, or a commercial business, or something else that serves the community.  Or you might decide to build something yourself.  Either way, this contributes to better housing supply or increased job opportunities.

Also, that $155 million/year is just for actual vacant lots, coded by the Assessor as class 100. There are also 25,180 parcels labeled as “vacant land under common ownership with adjacent residence” (class 241), also assessed at 10%.  These are assessed at $123 million.  By the same calculation as we used for vacant lots, assessing these like other nonresidential property could yield an additional $39 million, and some of the parcels would be used for new housing (including accessory dwelling units) or other useful projects.

This amount of revenue is not going to solve all the financial problems of Cook County local governments, but it would be a start, would cost practically nothing to implement, and would have the side benefit of increasing jobs and housing.

Many vacant lots are not taxable, because they belong to the City of Chicago or other government agencies.  The above calculations omit such lots. DePaul’s Institute for Housing Studies has examined vacant land in Chicago, including City-owned parcels, and provides some analysis here.

This is not a complete remedy for Chicago’s and Cook County’s financial (and other) difficulties.  But it should be an element in any plan to achieve prosperity and justice.

[More to come.]