Lincolnshire's Tax Rates Keep Falling. Homeowners Are Carrying More of the Bill Anyway.

"The increase can mainly be attributed to an increase in the value of the residential real estate market."

That line comes from Village Treasurer and Finance Director Matt Rossi at the October 13, 2025 Committee of the Whole. He was explaining why Lincolnshire's preliminary taxable value had risen 9.6% to $814 million. The meeting minutes add that "all nearby comparable communities saw large increases." At the same meeting, staff recommended lowering the village tax rate from 0.29 to 0.28 ahead of the budget workshop.

Lake County's extension records show what is behind those cuts. Both the village and the main elementary district are lowering rates because residential values are growing much faster than everything else. Each cut is set against a tax base that is more residential every year. Homeowners pay a growing share of what gets collected, and commercial property pays a share that is flat or falling.

Why a Lower Rate and a Bigger Bill Come From the Same Thing

In Illinois, taxing bodies set a levy in dollars. The rate is what falls out of the math. Lake County's property tax FAQ explains that each district's rate is its levy divided by its taxable equalized assessed value, or EAV. A larger base means a lower rate raises the same amount. Bills generally rise when districts spend more, whatever happens to assessments.

So when home values climb faster than commercial values, the rate goes down and the residential portion of the levy goes up together. Both are the result of the same change.

One Tax Year in the Village's Own Numbers

Lake County's PTAX-251 reports split the village's EAV and extension by property class. Here is the change from tax year 2024 to tax year 2025, the bills Lincolnshire owners paid in 2025 and 2026.

Sources are the county's tax year 2024 report and tax year 2025 report.

The village's total extension grew by about $36,000. Residential property paid about $68,000 more and commercial property paid about $13,000 less. After the rate cut, the residential side paid for all of the growth and also covered part of what commercial owners stopped paying.

These are small dollar amounts. The village's FY2026 budget says its portion is about 3% of a total Lincolnshire tax bill. The same budget's distribution chart for tax year 2024 puts 37% of the bill with Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103 and 35% with Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125. The village figures show the pattern clearly, but most of a homeowner's dollars go to the two school districts.

District 103 Shows the Same Shift Over Four Years

District 103 covers more than the village, so its numbers describe a wider area than Lincolnshire alone. The county's PTAX-253 reports still show the same pattern over a longer period.

Figures come from the county reports for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

From tax year 2022 to tax year 2025, District 103's total extension grew by about $4.86 million. Residential property accounted for about $4.81 million of that, nearly 99%. Commercial property added about $128,000, and its payment actually fell in each of the last two years. Residential EAV rose about 24% over the period and commercial EAV rose about 5%. The rate is now lower than in 2022, and the residential share of the base has gone from roughly 72% to roughly 75%.

Stevenson's District 125 followed the same pattern in the latest year. Its rate fell from 3.117 to 2.967 between tax years 2024 and 2025. What residential property paid rose about 3.7%, to $109.6 million, while commercial payments rose less than 1%, to $25.7 million.

What a Falling Rate Means for One Household

Here's the math for a single home. Suppose its District 103 EAV was $100,000 in tax year 2024. At that year's rate of 3.271958 per $100, the District 103 line comes to about $3,272. Now suppose its EAV grew at the district's average residential pace for 2025, about 8.5%, to roughly $108,450. At the lower 2025 rate of 3.170174, the line comes to about $3,438. The rate fell about 3% and the bill went up about 5%.

That 5% matches the district-wide numbers, where residential property paid 5.1% more from tax year 2024 to 2025. A home whose assessment rose faster than average took a bigger increase. A home whose assessment rose more slowly may have seen a smaller increase or none.

Why the Office Corridor Isn't Taking On More

Lincolnshire has one of the larger commercial bases in the area, about 29% of village EAV in tax year 2025. That base has been nearly flat while home values climbed. Crain's Chicago Business reported that the vacant 31-acre former Aon campus at 4 Overlook Point sold in April 2025 for 96% less than its 2012 price. County records report totals by class, not by building. They show commercial EAV growing a fraction as fast as residential, which is consistent with a market where office space is available and has been selling cheaply.

Village Hall doesn't depend on property tax much. The FY2026 budget projects $4.5 million from sales and home-rule sales taxes and $2.4 million from the 6% hotel and motel room tax. The property levy funds pensions and police protection. The board keeps 75% of a year's operating expenses in reserve, and the budget names the loss of a top sales-tax generator as one risk the reserve is meant to cover.

The village is working on the vacancies. Its 2026 Economic Development Strategy, adopted December 8, 2025, sets a goal of reducing office vacancy. It also calls for exploring the conversion of empty offices to multifamily, commercial, recreational or entertainment uses. As of fall 2025, village records listed several specific proposals:

• Willow Bridge Properties, 340 apartments at 300 Tower Parkway. The Architectural Review Board gave conceptual feedback on October 21, 2025 without taking a vote.
• 250 Parkway Drive, an office-to-multifamily change of use that was still working through the sign-offs required under the CityPark planned development.
• The former Regal Cinema site, under contract for a family entertainment use.

These come from the October 16, 2025 committee minutes and the Architectural Review Board minutes. Those statuses are a year old. Any of these projects would take years to show up in the tax base.

The Next Bill Is Already Being Set

Lincolnshire's FY2027 proposed budget estimates another cut, to 0.27, based on a preliminary 8.3% increase in taxable value for tax year 2026. That levy, expected at $2,215,000, will be billed in 2027. That would be a second straight year of rate cuts built on rising taxable value.

Last year staff expected the certified EAV to come in about 1.7% below the $814 million estimate. It was certified at $782.7 million, about 3.8% lower. District 103 saw the same gap. Its December 2025 levy presentation expected EAV of about $1.298 billion and a total rate of 3.0847. The certified base was $1.264 billion, and with the levy fixed in dollars, the actual rate came in at 3.170. For tax year 2025, the rates estimated in the fall turned out lower than the rates on the final bill.

When we compare a Lincolnshire home with one in a nearby suburb, these are the tax numbers we look at:

1. The home's own EAV history over several years, set against the residential growth rates above.
2. The District 103 and District 125 lines on the bill, which together made up about 72% of the tax year 2024 total.
3. The dollar levies each district adopts in late fall, because those determine what gets collected.
4. The difference between preliminary and certified figures, which pushed final rates above the fall estimates for tax year 2025.

This post is general information and not tax or legal advice. Please confirm how any of this applies to a specific property with a qualified tax professional or the Lake County assessment offices.

If you're weighing a Lincolnshire home and want its tax history next to the comparable homes you're considering, Deb Baker Homes can put that comparison together for you. If you own in Lincolnshire, request a complimentary home valuation and we'll show you how your property's assessed value has tracked against the village's residential base.