Woodfield Used to Keep Schaumburg's Tax Bills Low. Why Did This Year's Rise Twice as Fast as the Region's?

If you are touring homes in Schaumburg this month, the property tax figure on a listing sheet may come from one of two different bills. Cook County posted the tax-year 2025 second-installment bills online on August 18, 2026, with payment due October 1. Those were the first bills based on Schaumburg Township's 2025 reassessment. Any tax figure written before late August reflects the bill from before the reassessment. In Schaumburg, the gap between the two is wider than in almost any nearby suburb.

The Cook County Treasurer's tax year 2025 bill analysis, published in August 2026, puts numbers on it. In the Village of Schaumburg, residential assessed values rose 26.8% and commercial values rose 4.6%. Together, those two changes pushed the median homeowner's bill up 14.8%, to $7,196.

Across the north and northwest suburbs as a whole, the median homeowner bill rose 6.7%, to $8,007. Schaumburg's median bill is still lower than the regional median. Its increase was more than double the regional rate.

The tax bill is a pie, and the slices just changed size

A tax bill does not grow simply because a home is worth more. Each taxing body sets a levy, a total dollar amount it needs to collect. Assessments then decide each property's share of that total. The Treasurer's report puts it plainly: assessments "determine what portion of the total levy each property owner must pay."

So a home's value going up matters less than how fast it went up compared with everything else in the same taxing districts. The Treasurer says Schaumburg "relies heavily on commercial property tax collections" as home to Woodfield Mall. When a large share of the base is commercial, homeowners benefit as long as commercial values keep up. In 2025, commercial values rose by less than a fifth of the residential increase, and part of the commercial share moved onto homes.

Schaumburg's gap was wider than the region's on both sides. Home values rose faster than the regional figure, and commercial values rose more slowly. That double gap is why the median bill rose more than twice as fast as the region's.

Why the commercial side barely moved

The Cook County Assessor values commercial property mainly by the income it produces. That calculation includes estimated rent, market vacancy, collection losses and expenses. A building with fewer tenants produces less income, so it gets a lower value. Schaumburg's office corridor has gone through several years of exactly that.

• Suburban office vacancy overall ended 2025 at 32.9%, according to The Real Deal. The report cited remote and hybrid work and aging buildings, and said tenants had given up about 5.3 million square feet since 2020.
• Woodfield Corporate Center, at 425 and 475 N. Martingale Road, is a two-building, 711,000-square-foot campus. New York Life put it on the market in February 2026, The Real Deal reported, describing it as mostly vacant after leasing became difficult following the pandemic.
• The former Motorola campus at 1299 and 1303 E. Algonquin Road covers more than 500,000 square feet. It was part of a portfolio caught in a $664 million foreclosure dispute, The Real Deal reported in July 2025. The complex was listed for $100 million in 2020 and had not sold.
• 1699 E. Woodfield Road is a vacant five-story office building that was approved in February 2025 for conversion to 98 apartments. The Daily Herald reported on May 19, 2026 that work had not started yet and that the owner was comparing bids.

The office picture is not all decline. In July 2025, Village Economic Development Director Matt Frank told the Daily Herald that vacancy was falling. He pointed to new leases by Wheels LLC and ADP at Zurich North America as positive signs, while adding that the market still needed close attention. Even so, the assessment reflected a commercial base that had been earning less income while home sale prices kept rising.

Appeals moved the scales again

After the Assessor sets values, owners can appeal to the Board of Review, and commercial owners use that step heavily. Across the north and northwest suburbs, Board of Review decisions cut $850.4 million from commercial assessed values and $397.4 million from residential values. Commercial appeals succeeded 60.76% of the time, and residential appeals 55.61%.

The Assessor's office reported on August 18, 2026 that homeowners' share of regional assessed value went from 66% to 68% after the 2025 appeals. It also said Board of Review decisions reduced commercial values by 14% this cycle, compared with 20% in 2022. The Treasurer's analysis says the full cycle moved more than 2 percentage points of the region's tax burden from businesses to homeowners.

The village line on the bill is not the source

The Village of Schaumburg's own levy is a small part of the story. According to the Village's property tax page, Schaumburg first levied a property tax in 2009 and has reduced it or held it flat every year since. The 2025 proposed levy matched 2024, which was 5% below 2018. Nearly 90% of the 2025 levy goes to required contributions to the police and fire pension funds, and about $2.0 million supports public safety operations.

A flat levy does not mean a flat bill. If the Village collects the same total and homes now hold a larger share of the assessed value, each home pays a larger share of that same total.

One more figure from the Treasurer's report is Schaumburg's Centex TIF district, created in 2024. In its first full year, its assessed values grew enough to produce a $4.2 million tax bill. In TIF districts, taxes can grow faster than the inflation limits that apply to other property taxes.

What the higher bill means next to Schaumburg's sale prices

According to Midwest Real Estate Data's Schaumburg report for September 2026, with data current as of October 14, 2026:

• Detached homes: median sale price of $510,000, 30 closed sales, and an average of 27 days on market.
• Attached homes: median sale price of $290,000, 57 closed sales, and an average of 28 days on market.

Homes are selling within about a month, so a buyer has little time to work out the carrying cost. A higher tax bill raises the monthly payment on a home that costs the same to buy. For buyers stretching to reach the detached segment, that difference can affect what they qualify for. Ask your lender which tax figure they are using and which year's bill it comes from.

What happens on the calendar from here

The 2025 values stay in place for three years. The Assessor's calendar, last updated November 6, 2026, shows a "Reassessment Notice Date" of October 6, 2026 for Schaumburg Township and lists November 19, 2026 as the last day to file an Assessor appeal this year. The calendar also says north suburban properties are reassessed in a non-reassessment year like this one only when there is a specific reason, such as permit work.

1. Assessor appeals: Schaumburg Township is open until November 19, 2026.
2. Board of Review: Schaumburg is listed as a pre-file township on the Board of Review appeals portal. The official filing window opens later.
3. First-installment bills: The Treasurer calculates the first installment as 55% of the previous year's total tax. The next first-installment bill will therefore be based on the higher tax-year 2025 total.
4. Next reassessment: Cook County reassesses each region every three years. Schaumburg Township was reassessed in 2025, so on that cycle the next one would fall in 2028.

This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm the details of your own property and bill with a qualified tax professional, attorney or lender before you act.

A few questions buyers ask

Is Schaumburg still a lower-tax option than its neighbors?

The tax year 2025 median homeowner bill in Schaumburg was $7,196. Across the north and northwest suburbs it was $8,007. The gap between the two is smaller now than it was before the reassessment.

Can I tell whether a listing's tax figure is current?

Ask for the year of the bill. Tax-year 2025 second-installment bills went online August 18, 2026. A figure from before then reflects the old assessment.

Will commercial values catch up?

Commercial values are based on income, so they depend on occupancy at buildings like Woodfield Corporate Center and on whether projects like the 1699 E. Woodfield Road conversion move ahead. On the three-year cycle, the next reassessment that could reflect any change would come in 2028.

If you are weighing a Schaumburg home against one in a DuPage suburb, compare the tax-year 2025 bill side by side with what the house needs in updates and staging before you set your offer. Nancy Winchester can put both numbers on one page for you. Start with an instant home valuation and staging plan, and bring the tax bill to our first conversation.