This house on Linden Avenue in Western Springs sold for $910,000 in June. (Dawn McKenna Group, Coldwell Banker)
By Dennis Rodkin
July 28, 2026
Crain’s Chicago Business
Key Takeaways
- Chicago-area home inventory in June sat at roughly one-third of 2019 levels, below last year’s already-thin supply.
- Median home prices hit a record $407,000 last month, topping $400,000 for the first time.
- Chicago led 18 major metros in May price growth.
People shopping for a Chicago-area home this summer have about one-third the inventory to choose from that they would have had in 2019, the last summer before the pandemic and its aftermath warped the market.
The dearth of homes to buy goes a long way toward explaining another data point: Prices in the Chicago area are growing at a far faster pace than those nationwide, as buyers have to pay up to get the home they want.
Add to those items the fact that interest rates have been rising all year and it’s easy to see why buyers are having a rough ride in Chicago’s 2026 housing market.
Welcome to this month’s look at what the latest data says about the Chicago metro area’s real estate market.
Inventory goes from low to lower
The number of homes on the market in June was down steeply from a year ago in both Chicago and the nine-county metro area, according to data released by Illinois Realtors on July 23. In the city, there were 71% as many homes available to buy in June than a year earlier, and metro-wide, there were 86% as many.
Taking that comparison farther back, city homebuyers in June had just under 35% as many homes to select from as they did at the same time in June 2019, months before the dawn of the pandemic and a housing boom fueled by low interest rates. Metro-wide, buyers last month had about 33% of the options they had in 2019.
The available inventory is significantly below where it was this time last year, when buyers had about 49% of the selection they would have had in the summer of 2019. The figures may not compare directly, because the increased popularity of private listings means some of today’s homes available for sale might not be getting counted.
This is the opposite of what many market-watchers expected — and homebuyers hoped for. A few years ago it seemed likely the passing of time would loosen the lock-in effect of pre-2022 mortgages, with homeowners reluctant to give up rates in the low 3% range for current rates around 6%.
But with home prices rising, interest rates stubbornly failing to go back down, America at war and consumer confidence in the economy slipping, existing homeowners are hanging on to what they have.
The result is very slim pickings for aspiring buyers, whether they’re first-time or move-up buyers.
City, metro and national records
The median price of homes sold in Chicago in June was $427,500, the highest monthly median price on record, according to the Illinois Realtors data. The metro-area median price was $407,000, also a record and the first time it has been above $400,000.
Nationwide, the median price of homes sold in June was $440,600. Like the others, it was the highest on record.
The Illinois Realtors data uses the U.S. Census Bureau definition of the Chicago metro area, which comprises Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
Price increases top the nation
The metro-area median home price in June was up 4.6% from the same time a year ago, according to the Illinois Realtors data, and in Chicago the increase was 6.9%. Standing on their own, they’re healthy increases, but compared to the national figure — prices up 1.8% in June from a year ago — they look robust.
A second measure of home price growth is the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Indices, whose report out today shows that in May, Chicago-area home prices were up 6.93%.
That is significantly higher than any of the other 18 major metros covered by the index. Next-highest, New York, saw prices rise 4.23% in May, a full 2.7 percentage points less than Chicago.
Chicago’s increase was the largest recorded by the index since June 2024, when prices here were up 7%.
Nationwide, home prices rose 1.11% in May, according to the index.
But Chicago remains comparatively affordable
Fast-rising prices in Chicago may seem to be eating away at the city’s long-held status as one of the nation’s most affordable big-city housing markets.
Here’s a heartening figure: Despite the recent run-up, Chicago’s median house price is about 92% of the figure for the U.S., and that’s right where it was in the summer of 2019, Crain’s research shows.
During the pandemic, Chicago home prices rose fast but not as fast as many other parts of the nation. Though still rising fast, it seems they haven’t yet gobbled up their advantage.
New-home sales rose in the first half
Developers sold 3,087 new homes in the city and suburbs in the first six months of the year, an increase of 5.7% from the same period in 2025, according to a report released today by Tracy Cross Associates, a consultancy for the homebuilding business based in Schaumburg.
The median price of the homes sold was slightly over $509,000, an increase of 2% from the first half of 2025. That’s less than half the increase in prices for all homes, new or resale, in the same period. First-half prices for all homes were up 5.5%, according to the Illinois Realtors data.
That suggests aspiring buyers who fear dwindling affordability might want to house hunt in new developments, if those are in or near the places they hope to live.