Northern Illinois Housing Market Update - January 2026

Northern Illinois began 2026 with fewer available homes and substantially fewer completed transactions, even as prices continued to rise. Across detached and attached homes combined, closed sales fell 15.5% from January 2025, new listings declined 8.6%, and contracts dropped 6.7%. Inventory was down 10.3% and months supply decreased to 1.6, while the combined median sales price rose 4.3% to $318,000. Average market time improved slightly to 56 days, but sellers received 96.4% of original list price on average, down 0.4 percentage point.

Median Sales Price -- Trailing 12 Months

Pricing and Value

Metric	Detached	Attached
Average Sales Price	$412,648 (+3.1% YoY)	$369,218 (-3% YoY)
Housing Affordability Index	101 (+3.1% YoY)	110 (0% YoY)
Median Sales Price	$329,000 (+3.5% YoY)	$307,000 (+7.2% YoY)

Market Speed and Competition

Metric	Detached	Attached
Average % of Original List Price Received	96.2% (-0.3 percentage points YoY)	97% (-0.4 percentage points YoY)
Average Market Time	56 days (-1.8% YoY)	55 days (-3.5% YoY)

Homes for Sale -- Trailing 12 Months

Months Supply -- Trailing 12 Months

Supply Snapshot

Metric	Detached	Attached
Homes for Sale	10,126 (-10% YoY)	4,301 (-10.8% YoY)
Months Supply	1.6 (-6% YoY)	1.4 (-10.1% YoY)

Market Activity

Metric	Detached	Attached
Closed Sales	3,704 (-15.6% YoY)	1,744 (-15.5% YoY)
New Listings	6,562 (-8.4% YoY)	3,559 (-9% YoY)
Under Contract	4,620 (-6.9% YoY)	2,425 (-6.3% YoY)

What This Means for Sellers

• Supply remained tight, with 1.6 months of detached inventory and 1.4 months for attached homes, while active inventory fell about 10% in both segments.
• Median prices still moved higher, rising 3.5% to $329,000 for detached homes and 7.2% to $307,000 for attached properties.
• Market time shortened slightly to 56 days for detached homes and 55 days for attached properties, but average sale-to-original-list-price ratios slipped to 96.2% and 97.0%.
• Closed sales and contracts were both lower than a year earlier, so limited inventory did not make every listing an automatic quick sale; realistic pricing and condition still mattered.

What This Means for Buyers

• Buyers entered January with fewer choices, as detached inventory declined 10.0% and attached inventory fell 10.8% from the prior year.
• Months supply remained well below two months in both segments, so well-positioned homes could still attract attention despite the overall decline in sales activity.
• Average sale-to-original-list-price ratios remained below 100%, suggesting that some listings offered negotiating room even though median prices continued to rise.
• The affordability index improved 3.1% to 101 for detached homes and held at 110 for attached properties, with attached housing remaining more affordable by this measure.

Deeper Market Data

Detached and attached homes showed nearly identical declines in completed transactions, with closed sales down 15.6% and 15.5% respectively. The slowdown was also visible earlier in the pipeline: detached contracts fell 6.9% and new listings declined 8.4%, while attached contracts dropped 6.3% and new listings fell 9.0%. Price behavior was less uniform. The detached median and average prices both increased, while the attached median rose 7.2% even though its average sales price declined 3.0%, meaning the median and average transaction measures moved in different directions. Inventory and months supply both decreased in each property segment, while market time improved modestly. Taken together, the January figures point to a supply-constrained market with reduced transaction volume rather than broad price weakness.