The Home Front

Photo by Lev Dolgachov New legislation raises the income eligibility threshold for the Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze from $65,000 to $75,000, providing much-needed tax relief to senior homeowners in Cook County starting in 2026. By Don DeBat Chicago and Cook County senior homeowners likely will soon be jumping out of their wheelchairs and doing happy cartwheels thanks to an increased property tax break. On October 23, the Illinois General Assembly passed legisl

(Above) City workers remove water from Lower Wacker Drive near Randolph Street after overnight flooding on May 18, 2020. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP. By Don DeBat The once extremely profitable Illinois property insurance industry literally is blowing in the wind and battling a rising tide of property damage from weather extremes nationwide. Billions of dollars in losses sparked by California wildfires and forest fires in western states – and an unprecedented

(Above) A coach house (left in photo) in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. Click on image to view larger version. ADU photos by Don DeBat. A new Chicago ordinance now allows Additional Dwelling Units, or ‘Granny Flats,’ to be built citywide, signaling a significant step toward addressing Chicago’s affordable housing shortage. By Don DeBat “Granny Flats” finally are rising out of their rocking chairs in Chicago, a world-class city that is desperate for construction of new affor

A new University of Chicago study reveals that reforms by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi could have saved middle and lower-income...

The Chicago Park District’s new master plan for Grant Park threatens to overlook the city’s rich 16-inch softball history, pushing the...

(Above) Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi (left in photo) and Lyons Township Assessor Patrick Hynes. Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is...

(Above) Dining/Great Room of an Airbnb in Old Town. Interior photos by Andrew Charles Miller. (Click on images to view larger versions.)...

(Above) Buildings in the Old Town Historic District. Photo by Don DeBat. With a 36-story apartment tower set to rise in Old Town, and the...

(Above) Row of older brick homes in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, where property taxes increased an average of $2,508 from last...

March 2025 saw surprising resilience in North Side home sales, with existing sales up 8.4 percent from the previous year, as buyers...

(Above) Looking south down south branch of Chicago River in 2018. Wolf Point West at right. Photo by Sean Pavone. Rent prices in Chicago...

(Above) Humboldt Park, northwest of the Loop. Photo by 606 Vision. By Don DeBat A donnybrook is shaping up on Chicago’s Northwest and...