McHenry County Residents Pay 2.5% of the Value of Their Homes in Property Taxes

The Tax Foundation has calculated the effective tax rates for every county in the United States.

It is a wonderful study.

Effective tax rates are the only way to compare real estate taxes from place to place.

One can calculate one’s own effective tax rate by dividing one’s property tax by the value of one’s home.

For example, our home at 275 Meridian Street in Lakewood is valued at $440,400 by Zillow. 2024 real estate taxes were $11,067.

Our effective tax rate is just over 2.5% a bit over the 2.49% average for the county.

By comparison, the effective tax rate in Cook County is only a tiny bit less than 2%.

Other area counties are as follows:

• DuPage – 2.1%
• Will – 2.3%
• Boone – 2.3%
• Kane – 2.4%
• Winnebabo – 2.5%
• Kendall – .2.5
• DeKalb – 2.5%
• Lake – 2.68%
• Cook – 1.9833%

When only stateside effective tax rates are used in comparison, the figure is 2.07%, brought way down from non-Cook County levels by Cook County.