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Logan Square Homeowner Faces Doubling Property Tax After Rebuild, as Cook County Assessments Squeeze Longtime Residents
A Logan Square man who rebuilt after a fire saw his property tax bill jump from $13,022 to $27,411 in one year, illustrating a broader pattern of reassessment-driven displacement that a DePaul professor says is pushing longtime Chicagoans, especially seniors, out of their homes.
Randy Temple has lived in his Logan Square two-flat since 1992, when he bought it for about $100,000. Four years ago, a fire destroyed the building and most of his belongings, sparing only a portion of the vinyl records he has collected for 65 years. Temple chose to rebuild on the same spot.
That decision came with a steep financial consequence. After the rebuild, Cook County reassessed the property at $1.67 million, and Temple's annual property tax bill rose from $13,022 in 2024 to $27,411 in 2025 â an increase of more than 110 percent in a single year.
County records show Temple has paid his taxes and owes nothing. But he estimates the bills now consume roughly 40 percent of his income, which comes from Social Security and a pension from his long career at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, now called Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. He appealed the reassessment, and the county denied it; the Cook County Assessor's office confirmed the denial, saying the rebuild substantially raised the property's value.
"At this current tax rate, I will probably be able to stay for another two, maybe three years," Temple said.
He plans to apply for a senior tax exemption, but doubts it will be enough to keep him in the home. Asked where he would go, Temple said he has "no idea." Leaving his longtime neighbors is unsettling, he said: "If I go someplace else, a single man, I'm coming up on 80 years old. Who's gonna take care of things for me?"
Temple's situation reflects a wider pattern. Property taxes ranked first among costs Chicago-area residents want lowered in a recent unscientific survey of more than 1,200 people conducted by NBC 5 Responds. Nearly 27 percent of respondents said housing costs had led them to consider leaving their community in the past year.
Winifred Curran, a DePaul University geography professor who has studied Chicago property taxes for more than two decades, said displacement is already underway. "People are being actively displaced from their homes," she said, noting that reassessments every three years can bring increases of 60, 90 or even 120 percent depending on the neighborhood.
Curran attributes the pressure to falling commercial real estate values, which shrink a key source of the revenue that funds city government. "There aren't a lot of other options to make up for that money if we start cutting property taxes," she said.
The burden falls hardest on seniors, Curran said. "They're on limited incomes. They don't have the resources to pick up and move," she said, adding that displacement of elderly homeowners "can quite literally be deadly" and has a serious negative effect on health.
Renters are not insulated either. Chicago-area rents are up 4.5 percent from a year ago, according to newly released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and property tax increases can be passed from owners to tenants.
Homeowners who believe their assessment is too high can appeal through the Cook County Assessor's Office or the Cook County Board of Review, and may qualify for exemptions for homeowners, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.