In the News

You know that neighbor who won’t stop talking about what their house is worth? The one who slides the Zestimate into conversation at every barbecue? Bad news, friends: this summer, they’ve got the receipts. The June 2026 numbers are in, and the Chicagoland market is doing exactly what a lot of us hoped it wouldn’t…

Here’s a riddle for you: how can there be more homes for sale and higher prices at the same time? That’s not supposed to happen in the tidy version of economics they teach you in high school. But that’s exactly what’s playing out across Chicagoland this summer, and if you’ve been sitting on the fence…

If you’ve been waiting for the housing market to “calm down” before you buy or sell, I’ve got some news that might make you spill your Sunday coffee: it hasn’t. At least not here. The Chicago metro just posted another price bump, and the summer buying season is running warmer than a July afternoon in…

There’s an old trick for reading a housing market that no spreadsheet can match: walk into an open house and count the shoes piled by the front door. In the Chicago area this summer, that pile is getting taller again. Buyers are back, they’re serious, and they’re sizing up the competition the moment they slip…

Here’s a number that should stop you mid-scroll if you’re house-hunting around here: homes in Chicagoland are going under contract in an average of 27 days. Not two months. Not “a reasonable window to think it over.” Twenty-seven days. Some are gone in 48 hours. If you’ve been circling a listing in Bartlett or Carol…

Here’s something funny about the 2026 housing market: read the national headlines and you’d think everyone’s sitting on their hands. Slow sales, skinny inventory, monthly costs still bumping up against records. Redfin’s latest read on the country is basically a shrug — the market’s still thawing from a winter freeze that never fully let go,…

Here’s a fun exercise for a July morning: read a national real estate headline, then look out the window at what’s actually happening in the western suburbs. The two don’t match. And around here, that mismatch is working in your favor. The national story is all hand-wringing about a market “in flux” — stalled sales,…

Every summer for the past few years, somebody at a backyard barbecue in Bartlett corners me with the same question: “So when are mortgage rates going to drop?” And every summer I give the same slightly disappointing answer — probably not as much or as fast as you’d like. This July is no different. As…

If you’ve been half-watching the housing market this summer, waiting for some dramatic headline to tell you whether to buy, sell, or just sit tight with the AC cranked, here’s the honest read from where I sit: the Chicagoland market didn’t crash, didn’t boom, and didn’t do anything cinematic. It just quietly kept getting a…

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about buying your first home around here, I’ve got news that might get you off it: first-time buyers just hit 35% of the market nationally — the highest share since June of 2020. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a genuine shift, and it’s showing up right here…