Berwyn – the next gay ‘hood, or a budding Maywood?

Earlier this year the Tribune noted Berwyn’s attempts to position itself as an “affordable and amenable” alternative for the gay and lesbian residents of Lake View and Andersonville, and we wondered whether Berwyn’s marketing campaign was a violation of its own fair housing laws.

In his most recent post at Homeward Bound West, Joe Zekas says there are 40 single-family homes in Berwyn priced under $100,000. “We don’t know how many of these bargain-basement-priced homes are actual bargains, or whether Berwyn’s growing romance with foreclosures will drive prices even lower,” he says, referring to a recent report from Berwyn News about the almost 800 new and active foreclosures in Berwyn from this year alone.

Tax rates in Berwyn are on the rise, in some cases by as much as 5 percent compared to 2008. The property taxes on one of those $100,000 homes in Berwyn’s School District 98 / North Berwyn Park District, would come out to about $2,435 with a homeowner exemption. It’s approaching, but still hasn’t reached, the rates of tax-loving Maywood, where taxes on an identically valued home $100,000 come out to $3,339. (Maywood has seen 578 foreclosures of its own in 2010, according to Berwyn News.)

A Chicagoan paying the city’s general rate on a home of the same value and with the same exemptions would pay approximately $1,282 in property taxes.

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