And for Winnetka and Wilmette homeowners and buyers, the data tells a very clear story:
📈 Prices Are Rising Across All Tiers — Starter, Mid-Range, and Luxury
According to new data from First American and Crain’s:
- Starter-level homes: ↑ 6.5%
- Mid-tier homes: ↑ 5.5%
- Luxury homes: ↑ 6.5%
Even the lowest-priced tier is rising faster here than any other major U.S. city — meaning North Shore starter homes remain in extremely high demand.
🏡 What This Means in Winnetka & Wilmette & Entire North Shore
These communities continue to attract:
- Relocating families seeking top schools
- Buyers trading up from the city
- High-income households wanting larger lots & lakefront proximity
That demand keeps prices stable — and rising — even while one-third of U.S. markets are cooling.
💰 Strong Demand at the Top of the Market
Luxury activity is especially noteworthy:
- Chicago saw three sales at $9M+ in one month
- Sales above $4M are on pace to break records
For Winnetka and Wilmette, where upper-tier homes are a core part of the market, this is a strong signal of continued confidence among high-end buyers.
🔎 Why Chicago (and the North Shore) Remains Resilient
As economist Odeta Kushi notes, Chicago’s long-term affordability compared to other big cities has protected the market from the severe price drops happening in the Sun Belt and other “pandemic darling” markets.
This means:
- Sellers: can expect steady pricing and real demand
- Buyers: should be prepared for rising prices, even if the national news sounds negative
In other words — our market isn’t slowing. It’s strengthening.
———————-Full text of article ————-
Whether they’re house hunting at the entry level, the middle of the market or in the upper reaches, Chicago buyers are seeing their affordability shrink faster than in 10 of the nation’s other major markets, according to a new report.
In October, home prices in the lowest and middle range of the Chicago housing market were up from a year earlier compared with more than 10 other large metropolitan housing markets, according to data compiled by California-based First American Data & Analytics for Crain’s. In the upper end of the market, Chicago prices were up more than all the others except New York, where upper-end prices spiked far above the range of any other category.
In the top and bottom ranges, which First American calls luxury homes and starter homes, Chicago-area prices in October were up 6.5% from a year earlier and prices for mid-tier homes were up 5.5%. In some warm-weather metro areas, prices were down in all three tiers, meaning affordability improved for buyers at all levels of the market, the opposite of what’s going on in Chicago.
“Chicago prices are demonstrating resiliency in a very difficult market,” said Odeta Kushi, First American’s deputy chief economist. The difficulties include elevated mortgage interest rates, employers’ declining appetite for remote work and general economic jitters sparked in part by widespread layoffs.
One big reason for the continued robust growth in Chicago, Kushi said, is “its relative affordability.” Over the past half-century, Chicago has held onto housing affordability better than any other big city, Crain’s reported in 2024. Thus, there’s still room for buyers, even though housing prices here rose fast during the COVID-19 pandemic-era housing boom and have kept rising, while about one-third of the nation’s housing markets have started to slip.
“In the pandemic darling markets, we’re seeing slower (price) growth and some that’s negative,” Kushi said, “giving affordability a chance to catch up.”
But in Chicago, “the resiliency is good news” for sellers, Kushi said.
The nation-leading increase in Chicago’s lowest tier of prices is noteworthy because it indicates that even low-priced homes are in demand here, despite the bite that inflation is taking out of moderate-income households’ finances.
That’s not to suggest it’s good news that those households are having to pay 5.5% more for a home than they did a year ago.
The three tiers are not assigned dollar amounts because prices vary among the metro areas. Each tier represents one-third of all sales in that market, Kushi said. In Chicago, the lowest tier of prices would be sales at about $275,000 or lower, Crain’s research in Midwest Real Estate Data records indicates.
New York’s eye-popping 14.8% increase in top-tier prices is being fueled by sales of condos and co-ops at $5 million or more, according to a report from Corcoran, a real estate agency based there. In October, the timeframe of the First American report, buyers put down contracts on 90 Manhattan condos and co-ops in that price range, Corcoran reported, up from 79 a year earlier. It was the best October for sales at that level in a decade, the report said.
Chicago is experiencing something similar, with three homes sold for $9 million or more during the month of October and a rally all year in upper-end sales. At the top-most part of our market, sales at $4 million and up, the sales total surpassed the old full-year record in early November and now seems aimed at a year-end figure of 150 sales, up from 2022’s record of 136 sales.
In several cities, Kushi said, the housing market is “top-led” this year. The chart shows Washington and Atlanta are among the places experiencing this phenomenon along with Chicago and New York.
Article by Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business
Formatting & commentary by Sonia Madden, @MaddenNorthShore
Visit the blog: https://maddennorthshore.com/blog/
