5. OMG We’re Broke!
21 July 2011
The Atlantic:
If U.S. Cities Were
Countries, How Would They
Rank?
Chicago @
$531 billion
------------------------
Switzerland
$523 billion
7. Calumet City home of Kenyetta Braxton-Williams
• 2010: Purchased for $82,000
• Monthly payments ~$600
• (Interest + Capital + Property Tax)
• 2011: Assessor values home at $147,550
• Monthly payments ~$1200
• 2012: Appeal drops value to $93,560
• Monthly payments ~$800
• 2017: Estimated Market value of $98,560
• Monthly payment $982
8. Kenyetta Braxton-Williams
• Earns $12 an hour
• Works at a homeless shelter
called “A Little Bit of Heaven”
• “I’m $17,000 in arrears, and
now they keep threatening to
take my home.”
9. The North Center Masion of James Sarnoff
• 2014: Listed for $2 million
• 3,000 square feet
• 6 bedrooms
• 3.5 bathrooms
• March 2015:
• Assessor values home at
$1,300,000
• May 2015:
• Appeal drops value to $914,482
• Legally sold for $2,150,000
10. James Sarnoff
• Attorney with Sarnoff & Baccash since 2003
• “…dedicating his practice to securing favorable
property assessments”
• LeadingLawyers.com
• Claims his celebrity doppelganger is Denzel Washington
• 2014 interview with Oy! Chicago
• If the assessor had valued home at $2.15m:
• Should have paid $39,000
• Instead paid $17,000
• Every other taxpayer is making up for that $22,000
11. “After the Tribune raised questions about the 2015
appeal, the assessor’s office sent inspectors to the
house, where they reported discovering an additional
1,300 square feet of living space in the attic.”
Now: $1,800,000
12. ITS CALLED THE SEARS TOWER
• Most expensive building
ever sold in Chicago:
$1.3 billion
• Assessed that same year
for $579,999,999
• Estimated taxes left on
the table:
$50 MILLION
