No city transfer stamp, but the water bill follows the house
Bloomington's City Code has a twenty-article chapter on taxes, and none of them is a real estate transfer tax. The Finance Department's own list of local taxes doesn't show one either. So the stamps on a Bloomington deed are the state's 50 cents per $500 of price plus whatever McLean County charges, and the McLean County page covers both. By custom you, the seller, pay them, though the contract can say otherwise. The deed also needs a PTAX-203 transfer declaration signed by both sides.
The city bill that does stick to the property is water. Charges left unpaid 30 days past the due date become a lien on the real estate, which the city can foreclose in McLean County Circuit Court. Before closing, settle your account through the Hub, the city's utility billing office, with its online Move In/Move Out form or at (309) 434-2426, option 3.
Cottages on the west side, Queen Annes on the east
Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 put Bloomington's median year built at 1982, yet about 15 percent of the city's 37,162 housing units went up in 1939 or earlier, about a quarter before 1960, and nearly half before 1980. The city's Comprehensive Plan 2035 splits that core in two. The west side, from Downtown out to I-55/74, takes in Olde Towne and Gridley, Allin & Prickett, with mostly one-story cottages and two-story foursquares from the 19th and early 20th centuries, averaging about 1,000 square feet.
The old east side runs from Downtown to Veterans Parkway. It holds the Franklin Square, East Grove Street, White Place and Davis-Jefferson historic districts, plus Dimmitt's Grove closer in and Founders Grove farther east. On both sides, the plan says many larger single-family homes were cut into apartments, and the infrastructure is at least 100 years old and in severe disrepair. If your house is old enough to fall under the lead paint rules, you owe a buyer the Illinois lead brochure, the federal lead pamphlet, a disclosure of any lead paint you know about, and a window for a lead inspection.
Census Tract 59 and the lead line map
The city has $11 million in state revolving fund financing to replace 603 lead service lines in the Census Tract 59 area. Replacing the owner's side of those lines starts in 2027. The city expects recent water rate increases to cover that cost, but it also says it can't be sure, and anything beyond the rate money may fall on the owner. The city posts an interactive map of homes that may have a lead line, searchable by address. The Illinois disclosure form asks about lead water pipes, and you only disclose what you actually know, so it helps to look yours up before you list.
Selling a Bloomington rental or a boarded-up house
Selling a rental? Owners register rental buildings with the city every year, and that registration doesn't transfer. The buyer has 30 days after closing to register and pay the fee, or faces fines of $50 to $500 a day. A single-family home stays on the rental list until the owner files a sworn statement that it's owner-occupied, or vacant and not meant to be rented.
An empty house has its own rules. A home left unoccupied and unsecured for five days, or boarded up for 30, counts as derelict. The owner must register it and file a repair plan, and ignoring a notice for 10 days brings fines of $100 to $750 a day. The plan survives a sale, and a buyer must re-register within 30 days. That matters if you've inherited a house that's been sitting. Foreclosures and the November 6, 2026 tax sale run through the county, and the McLean County page covers both.
The honest math on $281,745
Redfin put Bloomington's median sale price at $281,745 in May 2026, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, on 112 sales. The monthly figure swings: $206,000 in February, $300,000 in March, $243,750 in April. At $281,745, commission at about 4.9 percent, Clever's Illinois average (updated September 2026), is roughly $13,800. Closing costs near 1.2 percent add about $3,400. The state stamp is about $282. McLean County's own rate couldn't be confirmed, and the state law that allows a county stamp sets it at 25 cents per $500, or about $141 here, so ask your title company. That's roughly $17,600 before your payoff or any repairs.
Census estimates put the median property tax bill here at $4,374 a year, about $365 for every month you carry the house, and May homes sold in a median 44 days. For assessment the city is its own township, with a 2026 equalization factor of 1.0385 and an October 29, 2026 deadline to appeal to the Board of Review. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and the closing date can be worked out around your plans. With about 36 percent of May sales closing above list, listing can make real sense here too. Run both numbers before you choose.
Sources: City of Bloomington City Code, Chapter 39 Taxation; City of Bloomington City Code, water billing and liens; City of Bloomington, Hub Utility Billing; Census Reporter, Bloomington ACS 2020-2024; City of Bloomington Comprehensive Plan 2035, Neighborhoods; City of Bloomington, Lead Service Line Replacement Project; City of Bloomington City Code, rental registration; City of Bloomington City Code, derelict buildings; McLean County, Annual Tax Sale; McLean County, Filing an Assessment Complaint; Redfin Data Center; Clever commission survey
