The sound and fury
Assessor’s office studies effect of airport
noise on property values as complaints
escalate
By John Handley Chicago Tribune
ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2014 Residents of Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs near O’Hare, like Norridge, above, have voiced
frustration after a shift in noise patterns.
Your guests have gathered for a backyard barbecue, and the steaks are sizzling. Suddenly a jet roars overhead, interrupting the conversation. Shortly afterward, another noisy uninvited guest flies over.
Living under a busy flight path can erode not only a community’s quality of life, but also its property values.
Coping with such extreme noise affects many residents near the new east-west runway that opened in October 2013 at O’Hare International Airport. It’s part of the massive O’Hare Modernization Program, which was meant to ease congestion and delays, increase safety and add flights.
When the noise started spreading over new neighborhoods, the Chicago Department of Aviation got an earful from residents who were exposed to the high decibel levels for the first time.
Complaints spiked in March, soaring to 352,846 from 122,803 in February, according to the aviation department.
Arlene Juracek, chairwoman of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission and mayor of Mount Prospect, attributes the huge increase to the “sheer frustration” of many homeowners.
The noise provides a disturbing reminder to residents of how peaceful their neighborhoods once were.
“Those who are most upset about jet noise from the new runway have lived in homes there for 10 to 20 years and know how it was before,” said Martin Lata, broker-owner of Re/Max City in Chicago. “Now they can’t enjoy their backyards in the summer.”
In response to the mounting uproar, the Cook County assessor’s office is studying the relationship between aircraft noise and property values.
valuations, said Maura Kownacki, spokeswoman for Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
The noise study is expected to take two years. Until then, the assessor’s office will not make tax reductions because of jet noise, Kownacki said. “It will take time to research the issue and evaluate market data,” she said. “We are currently compiling data and reviewing academic, assessment, military and federal studies regarding airport noise. We also are in the process of working to identify and map the (property index numbers) in neighborhoods potentially impacted.”
The assessor’s review will include checking sale prices in and out of airport noise zones to find out if there is a difference, along with how long
comparable properties were on the market. The study also will find out if home values are rebounding with equal vigor in and out of noise zones. Documented noise complaints will be plotted on maps, a process that will be worked on this summer, Kownacki said.
Some area homeowners already have filed property tax appeals, citing the additional airport noise’s effect on their quality of life.
Chicago property tax attorney Michael Griffin advises homeowners who live under a flight path to appeal assessments.
“They should highlight the jet noise,” he said. “If they can demonstrate the noise has lowered the value of their home, they may be able to receive an assessment reduction. The change in O’Hare flight paths may have impacted sales in their area and reduced the value of homes.”
But William O’Shields, chief deputy commissioner for the Cook County Board of Review, contends that if homeowners have gotten any reductions, it’s probably because their houses were assessed too high to begin with.
“Jet noise is very subjective and hard to quantify,” O’Shields said, noting that homeowners have sent in photos of planes flying over their houses to back up requests for property tax cuts. “We focus on sales and also take a micro-look at individual homes.”
Robert Padron, real estate broker and owner of Re/Max Cityview on the Northwest Side, believes exposure to high levels of aircraft noise is more than just an annoyance. “Housing prices are going up here, but they should be 3 percent to 5 percent higher if it were not for the jet noise, which has been a major complaint in recent years,” Padron said.
Despite the negative effect of jets flying overhead, some affected
neighborhoods remain sought-after places to live. That’s the case on the city’s Northwest Side, Padron said.
“One reason the Northwest (Side) remains high in demand is because of its appeal to city workers. They will overlook noise because they want to live here.”
Dean Karouzos, a homeowner in Chicago’s Forest Glen neighborhood, acknowledges jet noise is a nuisance but doubts it will push property values down.
“If I were selling, I wouldn’t reduce the price on account of the planes,” he said.
Nationwide, the negative effect of aircraft noise has been studied by Randall Bell, founder and director of Real Estate Damage Economics in Laguna Beach, Calif. He’s the author of the article “The Impact of Airport Noise on Residential Real Estate” in the Appraisal Journal.
Bell said homes under or near airport flight corridors experience loss in property values. He noted that a Federal Aviation Administration study estimated loss in value is minimal for lower-priced homes but can be as high as 19 percent for moderately priced homes.
Soundproofing is one solution, Bell said. O’Hare already is following that path. The O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, representing 1.3 million residents living near the airport in the city and suburbs, oversees one of the nation’s largest sound insulation programs, with 9,924 residences already completed and 1,950 in the pipeline.
The average cost of the O’Hare Residential Sound Insulation Program is $25,000 per house. Juracek said federal dollars and airline passenger fees pay for the sound insulation.
“We can’t get rid of airport noise, but we can try to manage it,” she said. Blocking out jet noise also could have an economic upside.
“After noise reduction, some homeowners say, ‘Now we can sell it,’ ” Juracek said.
