If you've started building a closing cost worksheet for your Lombard home sale, there's a good chance you added a line for a municipal transfer tax. Most sellers do. It's the number that shows up in every generic Illinois closing cost guide, the one that assumes every town works like Chicago, where the stamp on the deed can run into the thousands. In Lombard, that line doesn't exist. There is no municipal transfer tax and no transfer stamp to buy at Village Hall.
That single fact changes how a Lombard net proceeds worksheet should look, and it's worth understanding exactly why, because the mistake sellers make isn't just adding a fee that doesn't apply. It's assuming that because Lombard skips the stamp, it must also skip the pre-closing hurdles other towns require, like a paid-in-full water bill before the deed can transfer. Lombard skips that too, but not for the reason most people assume.
The assumption most sellers bring from Chicago
Chicago charges a municipal transfer tax on real estate sales. Anyone who has bought or sold in the city, or who has read a general Illinois closing cost article written with the city in mind, carries that structure into their next transaction. It's a reasonable assumption. It's also wrong for Lombard.
Plenty of nearby suburbs charge their own version of this. The Chicagoland Lawyer lists Skokie at $3.00 per $1,000, rounded up to the nearest $1,000, and says a village inspection is required before the stamp is issued. These aren't small line items, and they're exactly the kind of cost a seller needs to know about before they list, not while they're staring at a closing statement wondering what happened to their proceeds.
What Lombard actually charges, and doesn't
Lombard has confirmed directly through the Village's own FAQ page that neither transfer stamps nor transfer taxes apply to real estate sales here. That puts Lombard in a different category from a town like Skokie, where the municipal stamp is a real number on the closing sheet.
| Municipality | Municipal Transfer Tax |
|---|---|
| Lombard | None |
| Skokie | $3.00 per $1,000, seller-paid |
| Chicago | Transfer tax applies |
None of these rates are guaranteed to stay the same forever. Municipalities amend their own ordinances, and the right move before any closing is to confirm the current requirement with your closing attorney or title company. But as of this writing, a Lombard seller isn't budgeting for a village stamp at all, which is a meaningfully different starting point than a seller in Berkeley or Skokie working through the same math.
The two charges that still apply no matter where you sell
Skipping the municipal stamp doesn't mean skipping transfer tax altogether. Illinois charges a state real estate transfer tax of $0.50 per $500 of sale price, and DuPage County adds its own $0.25 per $500 on top, both authorized under state law and confirmed through the Illinois Department of Revenue. These apply to every sale in the county regardless of which suburb the property sits in.
Run the math on a $400,000 sale in Lombard: the state tax comes to $400, and the county tax comes to $200, for a combined $600. That total is the kind of number that shapes what a seller nets, and it's exactly why a generic "closing costs in Illinois" guide can lead a Lombard seller to overestimate what they'll actually pay.
There's one more fixed cost worth putting on the worksheet: the DuPage County Recorder's fee for recording the deed. That fee applies whether the sale happens in Lombard, Downers Grove, or anywhere else in the county, and belongs in the same column as the state and county transfer tax.
The water bill quirk that catches sellers off guard
Here's where Lombard breaks from the pattern in the opposite direction. Many DuPage and Cook County suburbs require sellers to pay off the final water bill, sometimes with a village inspection attached, before the deal can close. Riverdale attaches a transfer stamp fee to the process. Some towns won't release the paperwork a title company needs until the water account is fully settled.
Lombard doesn't work that way. According to the Village's water and sewer billing page, Lombard does not require the final water bill to be paid at closing. Sellers have up to 30 days after moving out to settle it through the WaterSmart portal.
This matters most when the people at the closing table aren't used to Lombard. Knowing in advance that Lombard doesn't tie the water account to the closing date saves a conversation that otherwise eats up time on closing day.
Building your actual worksheet
For a seller putting together real numbers before listing in Lombard, the list looks like this:
- No municipal transfer tax or stamp fee, confirmed directly by the Village
- State transfer tax of $0.50 per $500 of sale price
- DuPage County transfer tax of $0.25 per $500 of sale price
- DuPage County Recorder's fee for recording the deed
- No requirement to settle the final water bill before closing, with 30 days afterward to handle it
Agent commission, attorney fees, prorated property taxes, and any negotiated buyer concessions still apply the way they would in any Illinois sale. Those aren't unique to Lombard. What's unique is the absence of a municipal tax line and the flexibility on the water account, and those two facts alone can shift a seller's estimated proceeds by a real amount depending on what they'd assumed going in.
A few questions sellers ask before listing
Do I need to pay off my water bill before closing? No. Lombard allows the final water bill to be settled within 30 days after moving out, handled through the WaterSmart portal rather than at the closing table.
Will I owe any government transfer tax when I sell in Lombard? Yes, but only the state and DuPage County portions, at $0.50 and $0.25 per $500 of sale price respectively. Lombard itself does not add a municipal transfer tax on top of those.
Closing numbers are easier to get right when someone who works in this market walks through them with you before the contract is signed, not after. If you're weighing a sale in Lombard and want a clear picture of what your specific numbers will look like, Team Baker is ready to talk through your timeline and your net proceeds so there are no surprises at the table.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
