* 9/9/25 - Dailyline - U. of C. study finds Kaegi made property assessments fairer + Real Deal - Kaegi credited with fixes to unfair tax system, but accuracy lags .........
Buzz Sawyer
- SEP 09, 2025
University of Chicago study shows Kaegi has ‘dramatically reduced’ residential assessment regressivity while in office
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County Assessor Fritz Kaegi speaks at a press conference on Jan. 29, 2025. [Livestream]
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s Office on Monday highlighted the release of an independent study showing an estimated $1.9 billion in savings to homeowners during the assessor’s tenure compared to his predecessor.
The study, conducted by University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy professor Christopher Berry, examined assessment data between 2019-2024 and found “the Kaegi administration has made substantial progress in improving the fairness of residential assessments” and “dramatically reduced” regressivity in the county’s property tax system, under which expensive homes were underassessed and cheaper homes were overassessed relative to their actual values.
“Under the old system, when mansions and luxury condos weren’t taxed at their real value, working-class families had to make up for it. It was like Robin Hood in reverse,” Kaegi said in a news release. “We fixed that fundamental unfairness, and the data shows we’ve saved homeowners more than a billion dollars in the process.”
During the final years of the tenure of Kaegi’s predecessor, Assessor Joseph Berrios, the study said the bottom 5 percent of non-condominium residential properties in terms of sale price were assessed at 12.5 percent, or the equivalent of 125 percent of their actual sale prices. At the same time, the top 5 percent of non-condominium residential properties in terms of sale price were assessed at 8.2 percent, or 82 percent of their sales prices, on average.
Over the entirety of the Berrios administration, which lasted from late 2010 to late 2018, the study concluded that residential properties in the top 10 percent in terms of sales price were under-taxed by about $1.7 billion as a result of undervalued assessments, shifting the tax burden to other residential owners, and disproportionately to the lower-end of the sales price spectrum, the study said.
During Kaegi’s time in office, the study said the bottom 70 percent of residential properties in terms of sales price have paid $1.9 billion less in taxes than they did under Berrios’ tenure.
“Tax shifting has been dramatically reduced and nearly eliminated under Kaegi,” the study said. “If anything, top-end properties have been slightly over-taxed, but the shift has been relatively small relative to the Berrios numbers.”
Still, the county Democratic Party in July refused to endorse Kaegi for reelection next year, endorsing his challenger, Lyons Township Assessor Patrick Hynes, instead.
Related: Cook County Democrats endorse challenger to Assessor Fritz Kaegi in 2026 primary slating
Despite top-end properties being slightly over-taxed and middle- and lower-end properties being slightly under-taxed, the study said tax shifting during Kaegi’s time in office has been “relatively modest,” and it also reported all residential properties are within 10 percent of their correct tax share.
“While areas for improvement remain, Cook County is within industry standards for residential assessment fairness for the first time in years,” the study said.
For instance, the study notes that residential properties are still underassessed on average, and the underassessments have gotten slightly worse under Kaegi. The median residential assessment ratio declined from 8.8 percent, 88 percent of sales price, under Berrios to 8.6 percent, 86 percent of sales price, during Kaegi’s first term and to 8.2 percent during his second term, or 82 percent of sales price.
Although it didn’t fully examine the trend, some of the reasons speculated by the study for this slight decrease in accuracy include Kaegi’s pandemic-era assessment reductions, which anticipated a higher drop in sales prices than what ended up occurring, and time lag between actual sales and assessments.
The study also touches on an ongoing focal point for both the county assessor and county treasurer’s offices, the shifting of the tax burden from commercial properties to residential owners due to appeals before the Cook County Board of Review.
The study said the Board of Review has shifted between 3 to 4 percent of the tax base since 2019 “onto residential properties via reductions in commercial valuations on appeal, amounting to billions of commercial assessed values being removed from the tax roll.” But the study also did not examine commercial assessment quality, therefore it couldn’t speak to the accuracy of the Board of Review’s valuations versus the assessor’s.
“We’re doing our part to bring down property tax bills, but when other parts of the system are granting unfair appeals to big skyscrapers downtown, middle-class families end up paying the difference,” Kaegi said in the press release. “We really need the whole system working together for the average taxpayer, regardless of whether or not they can afford a high-powered tax appeal lawyer.”
When Chicago was reassessed in 2021, appeals before the Board of Review nearly flipped the assessor’s residential and non-residential valuations.
A separate study released by the assessor’s office in 2022 showed that while Kaegi’s office had determined the 2021 share of residential assessed value in Chicago to be 46.2 percent and the non-residential share to be 53.8 percent, the homeowners’ share increased to 52.8 percent and non-residential owners’ share was reduced to 47.2 percent after appeal decisions by the Board of Review.
Additionally, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ Office released its own study earlier this year that showed business owners were able to reduce their property tax bills by nearly $3.3 billion cumulatively between 2021-2023 by shaving $25.5 billion total in assessed value through the appeals process. Homeowners were hit with more than $1.9 billion of additional taxes as a result.
Kaegi credited with fixes to unfair tax system,
but accuracy lags
Cook County homeowners are paying more fairly, even as underassessments persist, University of Chicago study found
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- A new study suggests Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has improved the fairness of the property tax system by reversing the trend of overvaluing working-class homes and undertaxing wealthy properties.
- While fairness has improved, the study also found that residential properties are increasingly under-assessed compared to their actual sales prices, meaning the system is more equitable but less accurate.
- This shift in assessment has real estate implications, with commercial assets also seeing raised valuations, contributing to pushback from business groups and a lack of endorsement for Kaegi's third term.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is delivering on his signature promise to make the property tax system fairer, but questions remain about whether his office is getting the numbers right.
Kaegi has “clearly improved” the fairness of assessments over his two terms, reversing the system that for years overvalued working-class homes while giving breaks to the wealthy, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing a study by University of Chicago professor Christopher Berry.
About 70 percent of assessments of homes that fall below the luxury category by Kaegi’s predecessor were trimmed down. Berry’s analysis concluded that for the first time in years, Cook County’s assessments are “within industry standards” on fairness.
During the prior tax assessor Joe Berrios’ term, the tax office was taking taxes off the most-valuable properties and putting them on everyone else, Berry found. From 2010 to 2018, assessments shifted $1.9 billion from the upper 30 percent of property owners downward.
Berry’s study, which focused on homes, smaller apartments and condos, credited Kaegi with virtually eliminating the “Robin Hood in reverse” effect under Berrios.
The fixes have come at a cost. While Kaegi has leveled the playing field among homeowners, residential properties overall are under-assessed compared with actual sales prices. In other words, Kaegi may have made the system more equitable, but less accurate. Homes are supposed to be taxed at 10 percent of market value. Under Kaegi, that figure slipped to 8.2 percent in his second term, down from 8.8 percent under his predecessor.
That gap has implications for commercial real estate as well. Cook County’s unpredictable property tax regime is a perennial headache for investors. Commercial assets are supposed to be assessed at 25 percent of market value, a rate that helps make Chicago’s effective tax load among the nation’s highest. Kaegi has raised valuations on office towers, hotels and industrial sites, fueling pushback from business groups and contributing to Democratic leaders declining to endorse him for a third term.
Kaegi faces a steep re-election fight. Party officials have rallied behind Lyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes, who argues that Kaegi’s office has been plagued by misclassifications and erratic suburban valuations. Kaegi’s political pitch is that he fixed a system long tilted toward the wealthy. The bigger question for real estate is whether he’s created a system that can be trusted to produce stable, predictable values.
— Eric Weilbacher