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Comment: You knew this would come eventually -- an exit tax on the wealthy. This would be in the form of an especially high real estate transfer tax on expensive homes, an ordinance for which will soon come before the Chicago City Council
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Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
26 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
Audio and summary Why the Holdup Using Artificial Intelligence to Cut Illinois Government Costs? – Wirepoints
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Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
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Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Illinois real estate are only ATM machines for all the local taxing bodies. Having the same amount of money elsewhere rather than real estate they could not touch any of it. With an expensive home or a lower price one you still get the exact same services (school-police-fire) but at a different cost to you. What if they charged more money for gas depending on the value of your car (Lexus vs Yugo) there would be outrage? This seems to be an asset tax or a net worth tax since real estate are most people’s largest asset. Last I checked… Read more »
I’m confused. The real property transfer tax is $5.25 per $500, not $3.75 (buyer/seller is responsible for $3.75/$1.50). If I’m the buyer, I’m having the seller either pick up this obscene transfer cost or asking for an equivalent reduction in the sales price. If the latter, the real estate agents stand to lose a few hundred dollars per transaction.
The execution of this is flawed anyway. It’s the amount properties are OVER $1 million that should be subject to the surcharge, not the total sale price. Otherwise, that $1 million sale pays $19,500 but the $999,999 sale pays $10,500.
Yup.
If these aldermen ever watched a Barrett Jackson auto auction, they’d understand that potential car buyers factor in the 10% bidder’s premium when they’re determining what to spend on a car. The 1965 Ford Mustang you just saw on TV that sold for $50,000 actually cost that buyer $55,000. OTD is what matters.
isn’t the cha/city already sitting on $10s of millions of section 8 vouchers that could be used to house the homeless? and astoundingly instead used some of the $ to pay off pensions in advance?
I’m waiting for Chicago to put up toll booths on sidewalks.