773 388 0003

Tag: Home Prices

  1. Homepage
  2. Home Prices
Request a quote

Our blog

Latest news
& events

Chicago housing market in June 2026, single-family homes and condos on a residential street.
6 Views
ChicagoMarket Insights
Chicago Housing Market: June 2026 Update

The Chicago housing market gave a split signal in June 2026. Single-family prices kept rising, yet buyers found more room to negotiate than they had all spring. Condos moved the other way and quietly firmed up. If you need to know what a Chicago home is worth right now, the direction of prices is only half the story.

By the end of this article, you’ll know:

  • Where single-family and condo prices landed in June 2026
  • Why cheaper mortgages have not brought buyers back
  • What the widening gap between asking and sale prices means for your home’s value

What the Chicago Housing Market Did in June 2026

The short version: both sides of the market got smaller. Active inventory fell about 9% from a year ago in each segment. Sellers listed fewer homes, and buyers signed fewer contracts. Still, this is not a buyer’s market by the usual measure.

Months of supply sat near 1.3 in both segments. A balanced market usually runs 4 to 6 months. At 1.3, homes remain scarce, and that scarcity is still doing most of the work holding prices up. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate came in at 6.49% for the month, down from 6.82% a year earlier. For a running read on where that benchmark sits, Freddie Mac publishes the national average weekly.

So the headline is simple. Fewer homes, fewer buyers, prices still supported by short supply. The detail underneath is where it gets interesting, and it is the part that shapes what your Chicago home is actually worth today.

Single-Family Prices Kept Climbing, But Buyers Gained Ground

Single-family homes carried the appreciation story. The median sale price rose 5.2% year over year to $406,792. List prices climbed 6.3%, and new-listing prices rose 6.9%. When all three price points move together like that, it points to real, supply-driven value rather than a fluke in the data.

But look inside the quarter and the picture softens. In May, single-family homes sold at about 3% under asking. By June, that gap widened to roughly 7%. The share of listings that cut their price rose from 25.4% to 27.2%. Homes still sold, and they still sold at a steady pace of about 36 days on market. Buyers simply had more bargaining power at the closing table than they did sixty days earlier.

One month does not make a trend. Sellers won the year. They gave back a little ground in June, and that is the number I would watch through the summer.

Condos Moved the Other Way

The condo and townhome segment did the opposite. List prices were essentially flat year over year, off a hair at 0.3%. Yet the units that actually sold went for 4.3% more than a year ago, at a median of $318,700. The gap between asking and sale prices narrowed from about 9% to about 4%, and fewer sellers cut prices than last year.

Read that carefully, though. Part of the improvement reflects which condos sold, not a bidding frenzy. Better-positioned units made up more of the closed deals. So the segment looks firmer than last June, but I would not call it hot.

One more note on condos. These figures leave out HOA dues. The true monthly cost of owning a condo runs higher than the sticker suggests, so keep that in mind any time you compare a condo to a house.

Why Cheaper Mortgages Have Not Brought Buyers Back

Here is the puzzle of 2026 so far. Mortgage rates fell, and demand fell anyway. The 33-basis-point drop from last June saved a buyer roughly $88 a month on a loan near the median single-family price. That is real money, but it did not pull more people into the market.

The reason sits in the spread. The gap between the Federal Reserve’s policy rate and the 30-year mortgage rate has stayed wide. So even when the Fed eases, borrowers feel only a watered-down version of the relief. Cheaper money, in other words, has not turned into more buyers. For anyone waiting on rates to rescue the market, June offered little comfort.

How to Price a Chicago Home in This Market

If you are selling a single-family home, price to June, not to spring. Contracts are landing about 7% below asking, so an ambitious list price will likely draw a price cut instead of a fast offer. If you are buying, you have more negotiating room than you did earlier in the year, especially on houses that have been sitting.

And if you need a number you can defend, the list-versus-sale gap is exactly why a current appraisal beats a guess. Automated estimates and stale list prices miss the softening that showed up in June. A divorce settlement, an estate filing, a property tax appeal, or a refinance all turn on an accurate value, not an asking price. That is the work our team does every day across Cook County and the surrounding suburbs.

Know What Your Chicago Home Is Really Worth

Markets shift month to month, and asking prices lag reality. Get an independent, USPAP-compliant appraisal from a local team that reads this data every week.

Request a Chicago Appraisal

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Chicago home prices going up or down in 2026?

Single-family prices are still rising, up about 5.2% year over year as of June 2026, mostly because inventory is scarce. Condo prices look flatter on paper but firmer among the units that actually sold. Within the spring quarter, though, single-family buyers gained negotiating room as the gap between asking and sale prices widened.

Why are Chicago homes selling below their asking price?

In June 2026, single-family homes sold at roughly 7% under list, up from about 3% in May. Sellers set asking prices for spring conditions, and the market cooled a little faster than those prices adjusted. The gap between list and sale price is a normal negotiating spread, and it widened as buyers gained bargaining power.

Did lower mortgage rates help Chicago buyers in 2026?

Rates did fall. The average 30-year fixed rate dropped from 6.82% to 6.49% over the year, saving about $88 a month on a typical loan. Even so, buyer demand fell rather than rose, because the gap between Fed policy rates and mortgage rates stayed wide and diluted the relief.

How many months of housing supply does Chicago have?

About 1.3 months in both the single-family and condo segments as of June 2026. A balanced market usually holds 4 to 6 months of supply. At 1.3, Chicago remains tight, and that scarcity is the main reason prices have held up.

Do I need an appraisal to know my Chicago home’s value?

For a divorce, an estate, a tax appeal, or a refinance, yes. Online estimates and asking prices miss month-to-month shifts like the June softening. An independent, USPAP-compliant appraisal gives you a value you can defend if it is ever questioned.

Need an Independent Appraisal?

PahRoo has valued Chicago-area homes for more than two decades. Whether you need a divorce appraisal, an estate valuation, or help with a property tax appeal, our certified appraisers follow USPAP standards and deliver reports you can stand behind. See our residential appraisal services or learn more about our appraisal services across Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia.


Read Now
Chicago condo market in mid-2026, cooling fastest in the suburbs.
20 Views
ChicagoMarket InsightsReal Estate
Chicago Condo Market Mid-2026: Where It’s Cooling

The Chicago condo market is starting to cool, and it’s showing up first in the suburbs. That is the clearest signal in the latest data, for the week ending June 26, 2026. Buyers have pulled back across almost the whole metro, but the softening is sharpest in collar-county condos. Meanwhile, prices are mostly holding. So this looks like a market slowing down, not falling apart. We mapped the wider four-county metro picture a week ago; this update zeroes in on where the cooling is actually landing.

By the end of this article, you’ll know:
  • Why buyer demand has cooled across almost every Chicago submarket
  • Where condo buyers now have real negotiating room
  • Why a falling number of sales hasn’t dragged prices down yet

What the Chicago Condo Market Looks Like Right Now

Start with demand, since it moves first. Pending sales, the count of homes going under contract, fell from a year ago in seven of the eight county and segment groups we track. Condos are weaker than single-family homes in nearly every county. The steepest drops sit in suburban condos: DuPage condo pending sales are down about 28% on the year, Will down about 21%, and Cook down about 18%.

Why so broad? When one neighborhood softens, local reasons usually explain it. But when almost everything softens at once, the cause is shared. Here it is the cost of borrowing, and we’ll come back to that.

The Suburbs Are Where Condos Are Softening

The clearest stress sits in the collar counties. In DuPage and Will, condo inventory is piling up while demand falls. Will condo listings are up almost 42% on the year, and DuPage condo listings are up about 19%. At the same time, fewer buyers are signing contracts. That combination, more supply meeting less demand, is exactly what hands buyers leverage.

One clean way to see it is the pending-to-new-listings ratio. Above 1.0, buyers are absorbing new listings as fast as they arrive. Below it, listings stack up. Suburban condos sit well under the line, with Will around 0.77 and DuPage around 0.83. So inventory there is building, not clearing.

A fair caution before anyone over-reads the numbers: these suburban condo markets are small, so weekly percentages swing hard. Treat the direction as real and the exact figure as rough.

Condo segments by the numbers

County (condo) Inventory vs last year Pending sales vs last year What it signals
Cook -13.2% -18.1% Tightening, still liquid
DuPage +19.3% -27.8% Building inventory, buyer leverage
Will +41.9% -20.7% Fastest build, most buyer room
Lake -0.4% +2.2% Thin sample, mixed read

Cook County Is Still Tight

Cook is the counterweight. Single-family inventory there is down about 16% on the year, and prices are up around 4%. So sellers still hold the cards. Cook condos are firmer than the suburbs too, though the headline price gain there comes with a catch, which is next.

Why a Sale “Above List” Can Fool You

Cook condo sale prices look up about 11% on the year. That sounds hot. It is not, and this is where appraisal experience earns its keep.

With fewer condos selling, the mix of what sells swings the median. When the pricier units are the ones clearing and the cheaper ones sit, the median jumps without any single home gaining a dollar of value. The sold-to-list ratio of about 1.03 confirms it: the higher end is doing the clearing. So read that 11% as a change in what sold, not as proof that every Cook condo is worth more.

The same logic runs the other way. When a county’s sold-to-list ratio sits near 0.80, as Lake single-family does, it does not mean homes are selling 20% below their own asking price. It means the cheaper homes are the ones moving. Misread either signal and you misprice the collateral.

Prices Are Holding, Volume Is Not

Across the metro, sale prices are flat to higher than a year ago in six of eight segments. Will single-family leads at about +9%. So even as sales slow, the prices buyers actually pay have held. That is the signature of a market cooling, not crashing.

This kind of market usually resolves one of two ways. Either demand returns, which needs mortgage rates to fall, or sellers start to concede. The early signs of concession are already showing where inventory is building: listings sitting longer in Lake, and a rising share of price cuts in DuPage condos and Will single-family.

Why the Fed’s Cuts Aren’t Helping Buyers

The reason demand is soft almost everywhere comes back to financing. The Federal Reserve has cut its policy rate over the past year, down to about 3.63%. But the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has barely moved, sitting near 6.49%. Freddie Mac tracks that rate weekly, and the gap between the two is about 286 basis points. That is far wider than the 150 to 200 that is normal.

In plain terms, the rate relief that lower Fed policy would normally pass to buyers is not reaching them. So until that gap narrows, cheaper Fed policy will not mean a cheaper mortgage, and demand is likely to stay soft.

What It Means If You’re Buying or Selling

If you’re buying a condo in DuPage or Will, this is the most negotiating room the metro has offered in a while. Building inventory and slower demand both work in your favor. Just underwrite each unit on its own, because these small submarkets vary a lot from one building to the next.

If you’re buying single-family in Cook, expect to compete. Inventory is tight and pricing is firm, so move quickly on a well-priced listing.

If you’re selling in the suburbs, price ahead of the market, not behind it. With inventory building, an aspirational price tends to sit and then get cut. The data already shows that cut happening for a rising share of listings.

If you’re selling in Cook, price to the market and expect reasonable absorption. Buyers are still there for well-priced homes.

Know Your Segment, Not Just the Market

There is no single Chicago condo market right now, and no single housing market either. Cook single-family is tight. Suburban condos are softening. Prices are holding even as sales slow. Which of those describes your home depends on the county, the segment, and even the building.

So when you need to know what a specific property is worth in a market this split, a citywide headline will not get you there. The address will.

A cooling market makes the right number harder to read.

Composition effects and thin suburban data can make a property look stronger or weaker than it is. For a defensible value on your specific home, in your county, talk to PahRoo.

Request an Appraisal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Chicago condo market crashing?
No. It is cooling, not crashing. Buyer demand has fallen across most of the metro, but sale prices are mostly holding or still rising from a year ago. A market that slows on volume while prices hold is softening, not collapsing.
Where are Chicago condo prices softening the most?
The suburbs. DuPage and Will condos are building inventory while demand falls, which is the setup that eventually pressures prices. Lake condo prices are down on the year too, but that reading rests on a very small sample, so treat it with caution.
Is now a good time to buy a condo in the Chicago suburbs?
Buyers there have more negotiating room than they have had in a while, thanks to building inventory and slower demand. Every building is different in these small submarkets, though, so evaluate the specific unit rather than the county average. This is general market information, not personal advice.
Why are home prices holding if sales are falling?
Two reasons. Sellers are anchored and slow to cut, and the mix of what sells can lift the median when pricier homes clear while cheaper ones sit. Markets like this usually resolve through longer marketing times before they resolve through price.
Why haven’t mortgage rates dropped along with the Fed’s cuts?
Mortgage rates track long-term bond yields and lender risk pricing, not the Fed’s policy rate directly. That gap is unusually wide right now, near 286 basis points, so most of the Fed’s easing is not reaching the mortgage rate a buyer actually pays.

Need a Read on Your Specific Property?

Market reports describe the forest. An appraisal measures your tree. When you need to know what one property is worth, in one county and one building, an independent appraisal gives you a credible, defensible answer.

PahRoo Appraisal & Consultancy, LLC helps homeowners, attorneys, accountants, bankers, and real estate professionals make confident decisions across the Chicago area. Whether you’re weighing a Cook County tax appeal, settling an estate, removing PMI, or navigating a divorce, our team is ready to help.

Read Now
Chicago housing market in June 2026 across city and suburban homes
30 Views
ChicagoMarket Insights
Chicago Housing Market June 2026: A Four-County Split

There is no single Chicago housing market right now. That is the real story for the week ending 19 June 2026. Step back to the metro view and the picture looks calm and tight: few homes for sale, firm prices, steady sales. Look closer at the county level, though, and four very different markets come into focus. Knowing which one your home sits in matters far more than any citywide headline.

By the end of this article, you’ll know:

  • Why a metro-wide average can mislead you about your own home
  • Which Chicago-area counties have real buyer demand, and which are coasting on scarcity
  • Why a home selling “over asking” may not mean what you think
What the Chicago Housing Market Looks Like Right Now

Start with the wide-angle view. Across the metro, supply is very tight. Single-family homes and condos are both running near 1.4 months of supply, when a balanced market sits at four to six. Prices are up on the year, and condos are leading on demand. So by those headline numbers, it is a seller’s market.

The financing backdrop has a twist, though. The Federal Reserve has cut its policy rate over the past year, but the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has barely followed. It sits around 6.47%, while the federal funds rate is near 3.63%. Freddie Mac tracks that mortgage rate weekly, and the gap between the two is about 284 basis points. That is far wider than the 150 to 200 points that is normal. So the Fed’s cuts are getting stranded before they reach a buyer’s monthly payment.

One Metro, Four Different Markets

Once you split the metro by county, the calm surface breaks apart.

Cook County: firm prices, fading demand. Cook is the dense urban core, and it shows the most uneasy mix. For example, single-family pending sales are down about 11% on the year, and active inventory is down roughly 16%. Yet absorbed prices are up 9.6%. Prices are holding because there is so little to buy, not because buyers are pouring in. In other words, that is a more fragile kind of strength than it looks.

DuPage and Will: the real demand. These two suburban counties are the healthiest in the data. Single-family pending sales are up about 17% in DuPage and 15% in Will on the year, with inventory flat to rising. In short, this is demand-led growth, the kind that rests on people actually buying rather than on empty shelves.

Lake County: a big price number on thin support. Then there is Lake, with the strongest single-family price growth of the four, up 13.8% on the year. But that sits on falling inventory and only modest demand. It looks more like scarcity pricing than a real boom, so treat the figure as a single reading, not a trend.

Condos add one more wrinkle. Condo demand is positive in all four counties. Still, Will is adding condo inventory fast, up about 25% on the year, while buyers there are not keeping pace. Lake’s condo asking prices have dropped sharply too, though that comes from a small sample. Even so, both are early signs of softening at the edges. One note for condo shoppers: these figures leave out HOA dues, which are a real monthly cost and can change the math.

Single-family by the numbers
County Median sold price Price vs last year Buyer demand
Cook $390k +9.6% Down (scarcity holding prices)
DuPage $575k +8.1% Up strongly (demand-led)
Lake $529k +13.8% Modest (scarcity pricing)
Will $419k +4.8% Up strongly (demand-led)
Why “Over Asking” Can Be Misleading

This is where a little appraisal experience pays off. In Cook County, single-family homes show a sold-to-list ratio of 1.09. On the surface that reads as homes selling 9% over asking, a classic bidding-war signal. In fact, it almost certainly is not.

The ratio compares the median sold home to the median listed home, and those are two different baskets of houses. A number above 1.0 usually means the pricier homes are the ones selling while cheaper ones sit. In Cook right now, the affordable stock under about $360,000 is what’s left on the shelf, and the higher-priced homes are clearing. So the figure reflects which homes are selling, not buyers bidding each other up. Read it as a bidding war and you would badly overstate how hot the market really is. Pricing a property, or a loan against one, on that misread is how mistakes happen.

What This Means If You’re Buying, Selling, or Lending

If you’re selling, price to the market, not to a headline. About a quarter of listings in every county are cutting price, even with supply this tight. That tells you sellers are testing high, then trimming. An aspirational asking price tends to sit and then drop. By contrast, a realistic one moves.

If you’re buying, the genuine openings are in the demand-led suburbs, DuPage and Will, rather than in the headline price growth of Cook and Lake that leans on scarcity. In practice, if you’re eyeing a Will condo, the building inventory there may give you room to negotiate.

If you’re lending or valuing collateral, value is steadiest where price growth is demand-backed, which is DuPage and Will single-family. On the other hand, supply-led firmness, as in Cook and Lake, can reverse faster if inventory loosens. So a property-specific residential appraisal is the only way to know where a given home really stands.

For everyone, watch the mortgage spread, not just the Fed. Until the gap between mortgage rates and the policy rate narrows, a cheaper Fed policy will not automatically mean a cheaper mortgage.

Know Your County, Not Just the City

The Chicago housing market headline this week is firm prices and tight supply. That is true at the metro level, but it papers over four counties pulling in different directions. Cook is holding on scarcity. Meanwhile, DuPage and Will are carrying real demand. Lake is posting a big price number that may not hold.

So if you need to know what a specific property is worth in this market, the citywide average will not tell you. The county, the segment, and the individual home will. That is the difference between a number you can lean on and one that just sounds good.

A market headline won’t tell you what your home is worth.

Averages hide as much as they reveal, as this week shows. For a defensible read on your specific property, in your county, talk to PahRoo.

Request an Appraisal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Chicago housing market a buyer’s or seller’s market right now?

By the numbers, it’s a seller’s market across the metro. Supply sits near 1.4 months in both segments, well below the four to six months of a balanced market, and prices are up on the year. That said, conditions shift by county, so your local market may feel different.

Why are Chicago home prices rising while sales slow down?

In places like Cook County, prices are holding because there are so few homes for sale, not because demand is strong. When inventory shrinks faster than buyers fade, scarcity keeps prices up even as the number of sales falls.

Which Chicago-area counties have the strongest housing demand?

DuPage and Will lead on genuine demand. Single-family pending sales there are up roughly 15 to 17% on the year, with steady inventory. Cook shows falling demand, and Lake’s strong price growth rests on thin demand support.

Why haven’t mortgage rates dropped along with the Fed’s rate cuts?

Mortgage rates track long-term bond yields and lender risk pricing, not the Fed’s policy rate directly. The gap between the two is unusually wide right now, near 284 basis points, so most of the Fed’s easing isn’t reaching the mortgage rate a buyer actually pays.

If a home sells above asking price, does that mean there was a bidding war?

Not necessarily. A sold-to-list ratio above 1.0 across a whole market often just means the pricier homes are the ones selling while cheaper homes sit. It reflects which homes are clearing, not buyers bidding each other up. You need price-tier data to tell the two apart.

Need a Read on Your Specific Property?

Market reports describe the forest. An appraisal measures your tree. When you need to know what one property is worth, in one county, an independent appraisal gives you a credible, defensible answer.

PahRoo Appraisal & Consultancy, LLC helps homeowners, attorneys, accountants, bankers, and real estate professionals make confident decisions across the Chicago area. Whether you’re weighing a Cook County tax appeal, settling an estate, removing PMI, or navigating a divorce, our team is ready to help.


Read Now

NEWSLETTER

Knowing a property's true value is key
to making informed real estate decisions

Contact us

appraisal@pahroo.com

+1 (773) 388-0003

Visit us

7383 Lincoln Ave Suite,
#100 Lincolnwood, IL, 60712

© 2026 PahRoo, All Rights Reserved