We went to Galena, IL in 2018 for my mom's 80th and stayed at a VRBO in a neighborhood of 5 acre plots and really nice houses. I saw a house for sale...3500 sf ranch with a walkout basement on 5 acres. Picked up a flyer and they were asking $260,000. I couldn't believe it as it was a great place and would have been $450k or so in my area at the time in Indiana where housing is inexpensive. Then I saw the taxes.....$13k per year. Kind of like a lease with no option to buy.
Illinois Property Taxes are some of the highest, actually most of their taxes are high. When I lived in Rockford, IL I knew I was only going to be there for 2-3 years so was looking at a small 2 bedroom 1 bath cabin on the Rock River. Was really dated and like 900 sq ft. Cost was only $130,000 but property taxes were $6,700/year. I would have been paying over $1,000/month for property taxes, home owners insurance and additional flood insurance ($250/month). Rockford was so poor that the cops told me the city survived off of property taxes and DUI's. Cops were given quotas for DUI's each month because it generated almost $8,000/DUI in fines for the city. It was crazy. I could have bought that cabin for $130,000 and had the exact same payment as if I had bought an updated $340,000 house with 4,000 sq ft plus a large dock on the Lake of the Ozarks.