Des Plaines charges its own stamp, and it wants every bill paid first
Selling inside Des Plaines city limits means three transfer taxes. Illinois charges 50 cents per $500 of the price, Cook County adds 25 cents per $500, and the Cook County Clerk lists the seller as liable for both. The city adds $2 per $1,000 of the selling price, rounded up to the nearest $500, and its website calls this a seller's tax.
The city won't issue a transfer or exemption stamp until every fee and fine you owe it, water balances included, is paid in full. Two quirks are worth checking. Some homes carry a Des Plaines address but sit in unincorporated territory, and those sales are exempt from the city tax (9601 Golf Road is the listed exception). And a resident who buys and sells a principal residence within one year can apply to have the city tax refunded.
Selling a rental or a family house means an inspection first
If the house isn't owner-occupied, the city inspects it before issuing the stamp. That covers rented, leased, foreclosed, or family or friends living there without owning it. You start by paying $25 per unit and naming someone to meet the inspector, which catches plenty of inherited houses. The city may also require a Compliance Order, typically citing code violations or a private well and septic that has to connect to city utilities.
Then there's the water. The final meter reading happens two to three business days before closing, and the final utility bill is collected with the transfer tax. No Sensus meter yet? Public Works has to do a final reading and meter swap before the stamp. Paperwork goes to the city five work days before closing, and the city says to allow at least five business days for processing, so build that into any closing date.
Built mostly between 1940 and 1969, with the river close by
CMAP's June 2026 snapshot of 2020-2024 census data puts the median year built at 1966, with 49.7 percent of units built between 1940 and 1969. Detached single-family homes are 58.8 percent of the housing, and 78.3 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 57.7 percent countywide.
Water is the other local story. The city's 2019 Comprehensive Plan cites over 2,600 structures in the floodplain and 16 repetitively flooded areas, with developed floodplain along River and Rand Roads and homes in the Willow Creek and Wellers Creek floodplains. The city's voluntary buyout program aims to acquire 80 structures in the Big Bend area. Public Works is also replacing lead or galvanized service lines citywide. Pre-1978 homes come with federal lead paperwork, including a 10-day inspection window for the buyer.
Three township districts, an 8.87 percent rate, and the county court
The Cook County Clerk lists Maine, Elk Grove and Wheeling township districts within Des Plaines and puts the city's average composite rate at 8.872578 percent for tax year 2024, up 2.05 percent. Your parcel's rate may differ. Using the Clerk's sample-bill method (10 percent of market value, times the 3.0355 equalizer, minus the Homeowner Exemption of up to $10,000), a $383,000 home comes to roughly $9,400 a year, about $790 a month. The second installment of tax year 2025 bills is due October 1, 2026.
A foreclosure here goes through the Circuit Court of Cook County. You can redeem until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months after judgment, before the sale. The Cook County page covers the countywide tax sale date, the foreclosure court and the free mediation helpline.
The honest math on $383,000
Redfin's tracker put the Des Plaines median sale price at $383,000 in May 2026, on 46 sales, with a median 42 days on market. Single-family homes ran higher, at $452,500. List at $383,000 and commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026) takes roughly $18,800. Closing costs near 1.2 percent add about $4,600. Stamps come to about $383 for the state, $192 for the county and $766 for the city. Two months of taxes on the estimate above adds about $1,600, before utilities or anything a Compliance Order calls for. That's roughly $26,300 before a buyer asks for a single repair.
A cash sale still needs the city stamp and the paid-up bills. What it can skip is the commission and the repair list. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and you pick the closing date. Plenty of Des Plaines owners list instead, with homes selling near asking, and that's a fine choice. Run both numbers first.
Sources: City of Des Plaines, Real Estate Transfer Stamp and Refund; City of Des Plaines, Transfer Stamp Application and Guidelines; City of Des Plaines, 2019 Comprehensive Plan; City of Des Plaines, Water Service Line Replacement; CMAP Community Data Snapshot, Des Plaines; Redfin Data Center, city market tracker; Clever commission survey; Cook County Clerk, transfer fees; Cook County Clerk, 2024 Tax Rate Report; Cook County Treasurer, due dates; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; U.S. EPA, lead disclosure
