No Batavia stamp on the deed, just the state and Kane
The City of Batavia's own list of local taxes and fees runs from a 1.5 percent home rule sales tax to a 4 percent water utility tax. A real estate transfer tax isn't on it. A title company's Illinois stamp listing, revised November 2024, doesn't show a city stamp for Batavia either. Its only Batavia items are that the final water bill has to be paid and the buyer's name has to be provided. So the stamps on a Batavia sale are the state's, at $0.50 per $500 of price, and Kane County's, at $0.25 per $500. The same list marks both as seller costs by custom, though that can be negotiated. Neither source quotes a city ordinance, so have your title company confirm it before closing.
Your final city bill includes the electric
Batavia runs its own utilities. The city says it operates water, sewer and, unlike most cities, electricity. Your final bill runs through the Utility Billing Department at 100 N. Island Ave., 630-454-2020, and that's who you call to stop service when you move. The city says that if you vacate without settling the account, any deposit on it is forfeited and the balance can be sent to a collection agency. With the title list's final water bill rule on top, the simple move is a final read near your closing date, paid off through closing.
A 1985 median year built, and one downtown historic district
Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 count 10,840 housing units in Batavia, with a median year built of 1985. The 1990s were the busiest decade, at 2,441 units, about 22 percent. Still, 1,740 homes, about 16 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, and roughly a quarter went up before 1960. About 77 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 8,269 of 10,708. If your house is old enough to fall under the lead paint rules, you owe the buyer the state's lead brochure, the federal lead pamphlet and disclosure, and a window for a lead inspection.
Batavia has one historic district, the Downtown Historic District, created in 2006 by Ordinance 06-27. Exterior improvements there need a Certificate of Appropriateness reviewed by the Historic Preservation Commission.
Two townships, and District 101 takes most of the bill
The Census Bureau's 2025 estimate puts 23,262 Batavia residents in Batavia Township and 3,324 in Geneva Township. A typical Batavia Township tax code carried a 2025 rate of about 7.43 percent of equalized value, and District 101 schools made up nearly two-thirds of it. On the Geneva Township side the rate is about 7.30 percent. Kane assesses at one-third of market value and set a countywide reassessment for 2023, so the four-year cycle points to 2027 next. Owner-occupants can take a general homestead exemption of up to $8,000 of taxable value.
This year's bills came due June 1 and September 1, 2026, and late payments pick up 1.5 percent a month. October 23 was the last day to pay before the county's tax sale, set for October 26, 2026. If a foreclosure is filed, it's heard in Courtroom 220 of the Kane County Courthouse in Geneva, and the circuit repealed its mandatory foreclosure mediation program in 2023. You can reinstate within 90 days of service, and you can redeem until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months after the judgment. The Kane County page and the Kane County foreclosure timeline cover the rest.
The honest math on $462,450
Redfin's tracker put Batavia's median sale price at $462,450 in May 2026, up about 1.5 percent from a year earlier, on 28 sales with a median 45 days on market. Small samples swing, and April's median was $505,000. On $462,450, commission at about 4.9 percent, Clever's Illinois average (updated September 2026), is about $22,700. Closing costs near 1.2 percent add about $5,500. The state stamp comes to about $462 and the Kane stamp about $231, with no city stamp listed. That's roughly $28,900 before any repair credits.
Then there's carrying cost. If your assessment tracks one-third of that price and you take the $8,000 homestead exemption, the Batavia Township rate works out to around $10,900 a year, roughly $900 a month. Two months of that pushes the total near $30,700, plus the electric, water and sewer you keep paying the city. A cash sale skips the commission and showings, though the two stamps still apply. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and the closing date can be worked out around your plans. Plenty of Batavia owners list instead, and that's fine. Run both numbers side by side.
Sources: City of Batavia, sales and local taxes/fees; Saturn Title, transfer stamp listing; City of Batavia, start/stop city services; Census Reporter, Batavia ACS 2020-2024; City of Batavia, Historic Preservation Commission; U.S. Census Bureau, city and town population totals 2020-2025; Kane County Clerk, 2025 tax code rate booklet; Kane County Treasurer, tax sale information; 16th Judicial Circuit, foreclosure court; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; Redfin Data Center; Clever commission survey
