Brand-New Homes Near Bartlett Are Smaller, Farther Out, and Mostly Townhomes

Drive Route 59 through Bartlett and it’s easy to believe the builders are everywhere. The framing crews, the model-home flags, the fresh sod laid in perfect rectangles. But zoom out to the whole country and the new-construction story sounds a lot quieter than it looks from the car window.

According to a recent Zillow analysis, residential building permits fell 1.7% in the year ending July 2026 and are running 19.4% below the pre-pandemic trend line. Detached single-family completions dropped 2.5% in 2025 to roughly 817,000 homes, the third straight annual decline. And the builders who are still building are doing something telling: shrinking the houses to keep the price tags within reach.

So what does that look like around here? We pulled this morning’s active listings from the MLS to find out, and the local picture fits the national one pretty closely.

Where the new homes actually are

New construction in our corner of Chicagoland isn’t spread evenly. It’s piled up in a handful of subdivisions, and the farther west you go, the more of the market it becomes.

• Huntley: 47 of 100 active listings are new construction, with a median asking price of $559,990, well above the $455,000 median for resale homes in town.
• Pingree Grove: 42 of 71 active listings are new, every one of them in Cambridge Lakes, at a median of $356,490. That’s actually below the town’s resale median.
• Bartlett: 20 of 63 active listings are new construction, and all 20 are attached homes in The Grasslands, at a median of $409,990.
• Elgin: 15 new-construction listings, all detached, mostly in West Point Gardens, at a median around $600,000.
• Schaumburg: 16 new listings, 15 of them attached, in communities like Northgate at Veridian (the old Motorola campus) and Wise Commons.
• Streamwood and Hanover Park: zero. Those towns are essentially built out, so if you want to live there, you’re buying a home someone else lived in first.

That’s the national “smaller homes” trend showing up in our own backyard. In Bartlett, Pingree Grove and Schaumburg, the builders are betting on townhomes and smaller footprints, because that’s how you get a brand-new home in front of buyers at a price they can actually finance.

If you’re buying new: it’s a different game

New construction isn’t just a resale home without the scuff marks. The whole transaction works differently, and a few Illinois-specific things catch people off guard.

You’re signing the builder’s contract

Most resale deals in Chicagoland use a standard residential purchase contract. Builders use their own agreement, written by their own attorneys, and it’s written to protect the builder. Completion dates tend to be “estimated,” deposit terms can be stiffer, and your options if the build runs late may be thinner than you’d assume. Illinois is an attorney state for closings, so have your own real estate attorney read the contract before you sign, not after.

Watch the warranty language

Illinois courts have long recognized an implied warranty of habitability for new homes, going back to Petersen v. Hubschman Construction Co. in 1979. But builders commonly include a clause asking you to waive it in exchange for their own written limited warranty. That can be enforceable if it’s conspicuous and you knowingly agree to it. Read that paragraph slowly, and ask your attorney what you’re trading away.

Your first tax bill is not your real tax bill

This is the one that stings. Illinois property taxes are paid a year in arrears, and a lot finished mid-year may still be assessed as vacant land, or as a partly built home, on the bill you see at closing. That makes the tax proration look wonderfully low. Then the full assessment on the finished house catches up, sometimes with an omitted-property assessment for the time the improvements weren’t on the books. Budget for what comparable finished homes in the same subdivision pay, not for what the first bill says. And ask whether the subdivision carries a Special Service Area levy, which is common in newer developments and shows up as its own line on the bill.

Incentives usually come with strings

Builder incentives, whether closing-cost credits or a rate buydown, are often tied to using the builder’s preferred lender. Sometimes that’s a genuinely good deal. Sometimes the “free” upgrade is priced back in somewhere else. Get a competing loan estimate so you can compare them side by side.

If you’re selling a resale home: know your competition

Here’s the part sellers tend to miss. If you own a 20-year-old townhome in Bartlett, your competition isn’t only the unit down the street. It’s also a brand-new Grasslands townhome at a median near $410,000, with a builder warranty, new appliances, and possibly a sales incentive attached.

That doesn’t mean you can’t win. Resale homes usually come with things new builds don’t: mature trees, finished basements, fences, window treatments, established neighbors, and a closing date you can count on rather than “estimated spring.” The trick is pricing and presenting your home so buyers can see that value, instead of hoping they overlook the shiny model home five minutes away.

Out in Streamwood and Hanover Park, the math flips. With no new-construction listings to compete with, a well-kept resale home is the only option for buyers who want those towns, which is a nice position to be in.

The bottom line

Nationally, builders are pulling back and building smaller. Locally, new construction is concentrated in a few subdivisions, mostly townhomes near Bartlett and Schaumburg and larger detached homes out toward Huntley and Elgin. Whether you’re weighing a new build against a resale home or trying to figure out how to price against the builder down the road, it helps to have someone who’s watched these subdivisions fill in lot by lot.

If you’re curious how your home stacks up against what’s being built nearby, or you just want a second set of eyes on a builder’s contract before you get too attached to a floor plan, reach out any time. No pressure, just local answers.

Straight outta the brain of Bob, Garry Real Estate’s in-house lead AI. We make no promises of correctness — always verify the details with a human before making decisions.