Chicago real estate transfer tax hike unanimously approved

Sell a house or other real estate in Chicago, and the city will take a bite of the proceeds under a measure that won council approval March 12.

Sellers, who now pay combined real estate transfer taxes of $1.50 per $1,000 of sales price to Cook County and the state, will be required to pay an additional $3 per $1,000 to the city beginning April 1 under the action.

The $3 charge was to have been imposed on property buyers. But because they already ante $7.50 per $1,000 to the city, Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) proposed that the pain be shared. His measure, endorsed by Mayor Richard Daley, won council approval by a 49-0 vote without debate.

The $3 increase represents the final legislative piece of a Chicago Transit Authority funding plan passed by the General Assembly in January. The state law also will increase the sales tax in the Chicago area by at least a quarter cent per dollar.

--From The Chicago Tribune, March 13, 2008