Chicago Property taxes on new purchase

[John Huynh]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to purchase a multi-unit property in Chicago and am currently analyzing properties. Since the home prices have increased significantly in Chicago, I want to understand how to estimate my future property taxes taking into account the price that I purchase my property for. 

I want to understand how the property taxes are calculated in Chicago. I see "property value" and "assessment level" are denoted when looking at the tax bills of properties at https://www.cookcountytreasure... . When looking at the tax bills, I see the "Property value" field in the tax bill is very different than the asking price on Redfin. I am seeing properties on Redfin with an asking price of 1.05 million dollars, but the 2020 Property value is showing as 540k. Can someone help me understand how the "Property value" field is calculated in the Cook County Property tax bill? I understand that people can ask for more than what their property is worth, but it was sold for 850k in 2005 so why wasn't a value around that price used for the 2020 "property value" field?

 If I purchase a property, will my new "property value" be the price that I bought it at?