Chicagoland is the deepest 55+ market we cover — 40+ communities across eight counties — and it has a genuinely rare tax feature: Illinois taxes none of your retirement income. It is also the highest property-tax market we cover. Both things are true, and the second one changes the math on the first. Here is the balanced version.
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Talk to a Specialist →Illinois exempts 100% of retirement income from state tax — Social Security, pensions, and 401(k)/IRA withdrawals, with no thresholds or age limits. A couple pulling $120,000/year from those sources pays $0 in Illinois state income tax on it.
40+ active adult communities spanning Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, Lake, McHenry, Kendall, and DeKalb counties — from the 5,489-home Sun City Huntley flagship down to small 50-home developments, in HOA-fee ranges from about $135/month to $750/month.
An assessment freeze for income-qualified seniors 65+, a tax-deferral loan program, a Circuit Breaker rebate worth up to $700/year, and a general homestead exemption worth roughly $200–$600/year — genuinely more relief infrastructure than most markets we cover.
From Sun City Huntley’s $143/month HOA to Lake Barrington Shores’ all-inclusive $450–$600/month — you can buy the exact level of maintenance and amenity bundling you want, not a one-size-fits-all fee.
In Chicagoland, which side of the county line your community sits on changes both your assessment method and your effective tax rate. This is the single biggest lever in the market.
We connect buyers with agents who know this market from the inside — real cost math, honest comparisons, and what's actually happening right now. Every agent is personally vetted by the Nova55Living founder. No scripts, no pressure.
Expect roughly $8,000–$12,000/year on a $400K home, an effective rate of about 2.0–2.8% depending on county — with Lake County running the highest in the metro and DuPage the lowest.
This is the trade a Chicago-metro retiree is explicitly making against Sun Belt markets. If escaping cold and snow entirely is the primary goal, this market only partially delivers it.
On a $350K home, Illinois’s estimated total tax burden (roughly $7,000–$8,750/year) can still run higher than a comparable Arizona scenario (roughly $4,900–$5,600/year) — even though Arizona charges state income tax on retirement income and Illinois does not. The $0 income-tax line is not the whole story.
Carillon (Plainfield), Carillon Lakes, Carillon Club, Carillon at Stonegate, Carillon North, and others share the brand name across the metro but are separate developments with different builders, prices, and HOA structures — an easy way to research the wrong one if you are not careful.
Cook County assesses residential property at just 10% of market value, a method unique in Illinois, while every collar county assesses near 33.33%. The same home price can carry a meaningfully different bill purely based on which side of a county line it sits on — worth confirming with a local tax professional rather than assuming.
Buyers who want to stay close to family in the Chicago area, have meaningful pension or retirement-account income where Illinois’s full exemption is worth real money, want the largest possible selection of communities to comparison-shop, and are willing to treat property tax — not income tax — as the number that decides the budget.
Buyers whose primary goal is escaping winter entirely, who want the lowest possible total tax burden regardless of income mix, or who want one simple statewide tax number rather than a county-by-county spreadsheet — a warmer, lower-property-tax market is likely the better fit for that specific profile.
We can walk through the county-by-county property tax math and the real Illinois-vs-Sun-Belt comparison before you tour a single community.
We connect buyers with agents who know this market from the inside — real cost math, honest comparisons, and what's actually happening right now. Every agent is personally vetted by the Nova55Living founder. No scripts, no pressure.
Connect with a specialist who knows this market from the inside — real cost math, honest community comparisons, and what's actually happening right now. Every agent is personally vetted by the Nova55Living founder.
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