I represented the buyer on a West Loop condo that closed this June for $3,060,000. The largest number on the seller's side of the statement, setting the brokerage fee aside, wasn't the transfer tax and it wasn't the title policy. It was $47,027 in property tax prorations — money credited to the buyer for taxes that hadn't been billed yet.
That's the thing about selling in Chicago. The costs are modest and predictable. What catches people is a number that isn't a cost at all.
The short version: apart from what you negotiate with your brokerage, the actual cost of selling in Chicago runs between roughly 0.8% and 1.8% of the sale price, and the percentage falls as the price rises. Transfer taxes account for exactly 0.45% of that at every price. Separately, you'll settle up property taxes you already owe, which is frequently a larger number than every fee combined.
What follows is built from six Chicago closings that settled in 2026, ranging from $391,000 to $3,060,000, across a resale single family home, a new construction single family, two condominiums (one of them a townhouse-style unit), and a three-flat with one unit tenant-occupied. Everything below is what actually appeared on those statements. This covers the city only. The suburbs handle several of these charges differently, and I'll come back to that at the end.
The transfer taxes are the only number you can predict exactly
Three separate governments tax the sale.
Layer | Rate | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
State of Illinois | $0.50 per $500 | Seller |
Cook County | $0.25 per $500 | Seller |
Chicago, city portion | $3.75 per $500 | Buyer |
Chicago, CTA portion | $1.50 per $500 | Seller |
The seller's share comes to $2.25 per $500, or 0.45% of the sale price. Not approximately. Exactly. Across all six closings the arithmetic held to the dollar every time: $3,285 on a $730,000 three-flat, $4,320 on a $960,000 townhouse, $13,770 on the West Loop condo.
This is worth stating plainly because a lot of what's published on the subject is wrong. Several sites currently claim the Chicago seller pays $3.75 per $500, which would nearly double the bill. The city ordinance splits the tax into two pieces: a city portion of $3.75 per $500 charged to the buyer, and a CTA portion of $1.50 per $500 charged to the seller. If you're modeling your net proceeds off a number you found online, check it against that split.
Two smaller things. Some title companies print state and county as one combined line — on a $730,000 sale that showed up as a single $1,095 charge rather than $730 and $365 separately. And the 2024 ballot measure that would have graduated the rate by price did not pass, so the flat structure still applies at every price point.
The water certificate
Chicago will not issue transfer stamps until the seller produces a Full Payment Certificate showing the water and sewer account is settled. No certificate, no stamps, no recorded deed.
The city charges $50 to apply. Title companies and clerking services add their own processing fee on top, which ran between $100 and $125 on these files. Then there's the actual balance, which is a separate number — one seller paid $61.80 to close out the account.
If you own a condominium, ask your attorney early how your building handles this. Water is frequently billed to the association rather than to the individual unit, and that changes what shows up on your statement.
The part that costs people time rather than money: the certificate expires 60 days out, and if the meter hasn't been read recently the city sends someone to read it before issuing the final bill. That reading takes about two weeks and requires access to the property. Start it early. On a house that's been vacant during the listing period, start it earlier.
The zoning certificate, and when you don't need one
The city also requires a Certificate of Zoning Compliance before stamps issue. It certifies the legal number of dwelling units. The city fee is $120, and the title company adds roughly $100 to $110 to process it.
The exemptions are where this gets useful. Under the ordinance, a zoning certificate is not required for property under the Illinois Condominium Property Act, for co-ops, or for a newly constructed dwelling sold to its first occupant. That's why the certificate appeared on the three-flat and on a resale single family, and did not appear at all on the condominium sales or on the new construction house.
If you own a two-flat or a house with a finished basement apartment, this is the line item to think about months before you list. The certificate confirms the unit count the city recognizes. If the city recognizes fewer units than you're marketing, that surfaces here, and it surfaces at the worst possible moment.
The owner's title policy
In Illinois the seller customarily buys the buyer's owner's title policy. The premium scales with price, but not proportionally: $3,335 at $730,000, $3,795 at $960,000, and $7,995 on the $3,060,000 condo.
As a percentage that runs from roughly 0.7% at the entry end of the market down to 0.26% at three million. This is one of the few places where selling an expensive home really is proportionally cheaper.
Property taxes: the number nobody plans for, and not really a cost
Cook County bills property taxes a year behind. When you sell, you owe the buyer for the time you owned the home but haven't been taxed for yet — and depending on the calendar, that can mean two separate credits: the unbilled second installment from last year plus a stub covering January through your closing date.
At that June closing in the West Loop, the two lines were $24,841 and $22,187. Almost $47,000, more than double the entire cost of closing the $730,000 and $750,000 sales in this set combined.
It's worth being precise about what this is, because it gets miscounted constantly. This is not a cost of selling. It's a tax bill you already owed for months you already lived in the home, and the closing is simply where it gets settled. Selling didn't create it. Staying wouldn't have avoided it.
What selling does is change the timing, and that's what stings. Instead of two installments spread across next year, it comes out of your proceeds in one line on one day.
If you escrow taxes through your lender, some of that money is already sitting in your escrow account. It doesn't get applied at closing — your servicer returns the escrow balance to you after the loan is paid off, on its own schedule, separate from the closing. So you feel the full hit at the table and get part of it back weeks later. If you pay your taxes directly rather than through an escrow account, there's nothing coming back, because you were never ahead.
The contract sets the multiplier, usually 105 to 110 percent of the most recent bill, and that percentage is negotiated like anything else. A point either direction is real money at West Loop assessments.
One case where it's small: new construction. The $750,000 new build carried only $2,202, because the prior year's tax bill was based on the property before the house existed. A seller comparing that statement to a resale down the block would find a $9,000 swing that has nothing to do with either house.
Attorney, survey, and the closing fee
Seller attorney fees on these files ran from $600 to $2,000. The spread tracks complexity more than anything — a trust selling a property with a roof escrow costs more to close than a straightforward resale.
Surveys ran $625 to $750, and only on the non-condo properties. Condominium units don't need one, which quietly removes a line from every high-rise and townhouse closing.
The closing or escrow fee is worth checking your contract on, because it moves. On these six statements it was split evenly between buyer and seller twice, charged entirely to the buyer three times, and ran between $1,250 and $2,850. Some contracts still put it on the seller.
Brokerage compensation
Worth putting in your math from the beginning, and worth understanding as two negotiations rather than one.
There is no standard rate and no customary rate. What you agree to pay your own brokerage is set in your listing agreement. What you agree to offer a buyer's brokerage, if anything, is a separate negotiation with its own terms. When you're estimating proceeds, account for the possibility of both — an estimate built on one side of that will understate what leaves the table.
Any article quoting you a percentage is describing someone else's deal.
Example: estimated seller costs on a $1,000,000 Chicago home
Rates and typical fees applied to a mid-June closing on a Chicago single family home.
Line | Amount |
|---|---|
Sale price | $1,000,000 |
Transfer taxes (state, county, CTA) | $4,500 |
Owner's title policy | $3,900 |
Closing fee (split with buyer) | $1,200 |
Attorney | $900 |
Survey | $700 |
Water certificate (city fee plus processing) | $165 |
Zoning certificate (city fee plus processing) | $230 |
Wire, policy registration, commitment update | $300 |
Actual cost of selling, before brokerage | $11,895 |
Property taxes owed through closing (separate) | ~$12,500 |
Subtotal, before brokerage and payoff | $975,605 |
Three lines are missing from that subtotal, and they're the three that only you can fill in: what you've negotiated with your brokerage, what you may have agreed to offer the buyer's brokerage, and whatever remains on your mortgage. Subtract those and you have your number.
Note the shape of it. The transaction cost is under 1.2% of the sale price. The single largest hit to your proceeds, apart from brokerage, is the property taxes you already owed.
What it adds up to
Take the brokerage fees out and take the tax bill out, and the actual cost of selling on these six closings ran between 0.80% and 1.84% of the sale price. The percentage falls as the price rises, which is what you'd expect and what most sellers assume applies to selling generally.
What drives even that modest range isn't dramatic. Transfer taxes are a fixed percentage. The title policy gets proportionally cheaper as price rises. The professional fees — attorney, survey, water certificate, zoning certificate, wire fees, policy registration — sat between roughly $2,400 and $4,200 whether the property sold for $730,000 or $3,060,000.
The number that swings wildly is the property tax settlement, and it isn't driven by price. It's driven by your closing date and your last tax bill. Two identical homes closing four months apart will produce very different totals at the bottom of the page.
Tenant-occupied and outside the city
If someone is living in the property under a lease, two lines appear that don't exist otherwise. A $730,000 three-flat with one unit occupied carried $1,291.50 in rent proration, crediting the buyer for the unused portion of the month, and $1,700.85 transferring that tenant's security deposit. Chicago's residential landlord ordinance is specific about how deposits are handled, and it's not a detail to improvise at closing.
Outside the city limits, the picture changes. Water certificates and zoning certificates are Chicago requirements and don't follow you to Evanston or Oak Park. Municipal transfer taxes vary town by town — some charge the buyer, some the seller, some don't charge one at all. The state and county layers stay the same. If you're selling in the suburbs, the Chicago numbers above will get you the state and county piece and nothing else.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to sell a house in Chicago?
Apart from what you negotiate with your brokerage, the actual transaction cost runs roughly 0.8% to 1.8% of the sale price, with the percentage falling as price rises. Transfer taxes are the fixed piece at 0.45%. On top of that, you'll settle up property taxes you already owe through the closing date, which is separate from the cost of selling but comes out of your proceeds the same way.
Who pays the transfer tax in Chicago, the buyer or the seller?
Both. The buyer pays the city portion at $3.75 per $500. The seller pays the CTA portion at $1.50 per $500, plus the state at $0.50 per $500 and Cook County at $0.25 per $500. Sellers who see one large "Chicago transfer tax" figure online are usually looking at the buyer's number or at both combined.
What surprises Chicago sellers most at closing?
The property tax proration, almost every time. Sellers budget for the transfer stamps and the title policy because those are the numbers they've read about, then find that the credit they owe the buyer for unbilled property taxes is several times larger than either one. The second surprise is timing rather than money: the water certificate can require a meter reading that takes two weeks, and it holds up the deed.
I escrow my property taxes through my lender. Won't that cover it?
Indirectly, and later. Your escrow account isn't applied at closing. You'll credit the buyer for taxes through the closing date out of your proceeds, and your servicer will refund whatever's in your escrow account after the loan is paid off, on their own schedule. Same money in the end, but you feel the full amount at the table and get part of it back weeks later. If you pay your taxes directly rather than escrowing them, there's nothing coming back — you were never ahead.
Do I need a water certificate to sell my home in Chicago?
Yes, on essentially every transfer, including transfers that are exempt from the transfer tax. The deed can't be recorded without it. The city fee is $50, processing adds $100 to $125, and you'll pay any outstanding balance on the account. Order it early if the meter hasn't been read in a while.
Does my condo need a zoning certificate?
No. Property under the Illinois Condominium Property Act is exempt, as are co-ops and newly built homes sold to their first occupant. Houses, two-flats, and buildings up to five units do need one.
Why do I owe the buyer property taxes when I sell?
Because Cook County bills in arrears. You've lived in the home for months that haven't been taxed yet, and the buyer will receive those bills. Depending on your closing date you may owe two credits, one for the prior year's unbilled installment and one for the current year through closing. This is not a cost of selling — it's a tax bill you already owed — but at higher assessments it's frequently the largest single line on the seller's side of the statement.
Are closing costs the same in the suburbs?
No. Water and zoning certificates are city requirements. Municipal transfer taxes differ by town, including who pays them. The Illinois and Cook County transfer taxes apply throughout the county either way.
Before we set a price
I build a net proceeds estimate before I recommend a list price, not after we get an offer. It takes about twenty minutes and it uses your actual tax bill, your actual payoff, and the closing date we're realistically targeting.
The reason to do it early is that it occasionally changes the plan. A seller who learns in February that a June closing puts eleven months of tax settlement on her line sometimes decides to list in October instead. That is not a conversation worth having for the first time three days before closing.
If you're thinking about selling, I'm happy to run the numbers on your property before you commit to anything.
Every transaction has its own facts, and nothing here is legal or tax advice.
For implementation
On-page H1: How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Home in Chicago?
SEO title tag: Chicago Seller Closing Costs: How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Home? (2026)
Meta description: What Chicago sellers actually pay at closing, drawn from six 2026 city closings. Transfer taxes, water and zoning certificates, title, and the property tax prorations most sellers don't see coming.
Internal links to wire: condo red flags post (title policy or condo section), West Loop neighborhood guide (opening), Lincoln Park neighborhood guide (townhouse reference).
