Peoria's $2.50 city stamp lands on the seller
Sell a house inside Peoria city limits and you pay three transfer taxes, not two. Illinois charges 50 cents per $500 of value and Peoria County adds 25 cents per $500. Then the city adds $2.50 for every $1,000 of value, or fraction of $1,000, five times the county rate. The state and county stamps usually fall to the seller by custom, and that can be negotiated. The city stamp can't. Section 27-227(b) of the city code puts it on the grantor, which is you.
You don't pay it at City Hall. The city's instructions send it to the Peoria County Clerk's office in the courthouse at 324 Main Street, Room G4. A deed that's exempt under the state Real Estate Transfer Tax Act is exempt from the city tax too, and you mark the reason on the city's Certificate for Exemption.
Paperwork that rides along with a Peoria deed
Besides the state PTAX-203, a city deed needs a City Real Estate Transfer Declaration or Certificate of Exemption, plus a zoning form. That zoning piece matters. Under the city's development code, no Peoria deed can be recorded until a zoning Certificate has been issued. Single-family houses and residential condos are exempt, and you just sign a Certificate for Exemption. But if money changes hands on a multi-family or commercial building, the city wants a Zoning Certificate for Transfer of Property issued within the past year, from Community Development at City Hall, 419 Fulton, Room 300. Selling anything bigger than a single-family house? Start early.
The declaration also asks the buyer whether the home will be owner-occupied. If they check non-owner-occupied, the property has to be registered as non-owner-occupied at closing.
Old houses and a 1966 median
Peoria's housing is old. Census survey data for 2020 to 2024 put the median year built at 1966. About 20 percent of the city's 54,010 housing units, roughly 11,000 homes, date to 1939 or earlier, and about 42 percent were built before 1960. Owners live in about 57.5 percent of occupied homes.
Empty, inherited, or already in court
Peoria wants a yearly registration for rentals, vacant homes and any house the owner doesn't live in. A new owner has 30 days after closing, a single-family renewal is $75, and filing late costs $150. The exemptions matter for sellers. A vacant house listed for sale can register as exempt with its MLS listing, and so can a house in probate or estate settlement. If you're handling a relative's house, the inherited house guide covers the estate side.
Foreclosure adds a city layer too: a property in foreclosure or past a judgment has to be registered every six months at $300. The case runs through the circuit court in Peoria, and under Illinois law your right to redeem lasts until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months from the judgment. Taxes run on their own clock. To keep a parcel out of the November 9, 2026 county tax sale, payment has to reach the Treasurer by 5 p.m. on November 6. The Peoria County page has more on both.
The honest math on $173,700
Redfin put Peoria's median sale price at $173,700 in May 2026, up from $165,000 a year earlier, on 151 sales. Commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026) is roughly $8,500. Closing costs near 1.2 percent, a rough estimate, add about $2,100. Then the stamps: about $175 for the state, $87 for the county and $435 for the city. Call it $11,300 before repairs or your mortgage payoff. Carrying costs count too. The county-wide median tax bill in Census data is $3,552 a year, close to $300 a month, before insurance and utilities.
If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and you pick the closing date. The city stamp applies either way. Listing is a fine choice too, with only 1.7 months of supply in May and a median of 15 days on market. Run both numbers first.
Sources: Redfin Data Center; Census Reporter, Peoria profile; City of Peoria Code Sec. 27-227; City of Peoria, Real Estate Transfer Instructions; City of Peoria Unified Development Code Sec. 2.2; City of Peoria, Residential Property Registration; City of Peoria, Foreclosure Registration; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; Peoria County, General Tax Information; Clever Real Estate, Illinois transfer taxes; Clever Real Estate, average commission; Census Reporter, Peoria County real estate taxes