Lake Forest and Lake Bluff homeowners pay some of the lowest effective property tax rates in Lake County, but those rates still run nearly double the national average, according to a new analysis of home sales and tax data.
The effective rate in Lake Forest was 1.6% and in Lake Bluff 1.7%, compared with a county-wide average of 2.6%, according to an analysis by A T Griffin of the Lake County Gazette published Wednesday, July 29, citing BlockShopper.com data from the third quarter of 2024. The national average effective rate was 0.888% in 2024, according to the National Association of Home Builders' analysis of American Community Survey data.
That means Lake County's overall rate is more than 2.9 times the national figure. Even Lake Forest's comparatively low 1.6% rate is roughly 1.8 times what the typical American homeowner pays.
The dollar picture
The gap is stark. Lake Forest's median annual tax bill was $17,831 on a median sale price of $1,100,000 across 91 home sales in the third quarter of 2024. Lake Bluff homeowners paid a median $14,059 on a median sale price of $850,000 across 33 sales.
County-wide, the median tax bill was $9,360 on a median home value of $365,000 across 2,319 sales.
Where neighbors land
Among nearby North Shore communities, Highland Park and Libertyville each came in at 2.2%, Deerfield matched the county average at 2.6%, and Highwood posted 1.8%. Mettawa topped the county at 3.4%, while Barrington Hills had the lowest rate at 1.2%.
The pattern across the dataset: communities with the highest home values, like Lake Forest and Barrington Hills, tend to carry the lowest effective rates, while communities with lower median prices, like Grayslake (3.3%, median $312,500) and Volo (3.2%, median $370,500), shoulder higher percentages.
What the numbers don't show
The analysis uses 2021 tax data provided by Lake County, adjusted for estimated inflation, paired with third-quarter 2024 sale prices. The source notes that "actual effective property tax rate may vary slightly" from the calculated figures. These are not 2026 tax bills.
Why it matters now
Separately, Shields Township homeowners are receiving 2026 assessment notices carrying an equalization multiplier of 1.0825, the steepest year-over-year increase among all 18 Lake County townships. That multiplier increases assessed values, which could push effective rates higher when 2026 bills arrive next year.
Lake Forest's $1,100,000 median sale price was the highest of any community in the county-wide comparison. At 1.6%, the city's effective rate ranks among the lowest in Lake County, ahead of only Barrington Hills (1.2%).
