If it feels like every house on the corridor draws a crowd and a premium, the latest numbers back that up: Chicago home prices are rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, and there are fewer homes to buy than at any point in nearly two decades.
The median price of a home sold in the city in September was $389,900 — up 8.3% from the same month a year ago, according to monthly data from Illinois Realtors reported by Crain’s Chicago Business. Inflation, by comparison, ran 3.7%. Across the metro area, the median was $385,000, up 6.9%.
Chicago is outpacing the country by a wide margin. The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller index put Chicago prices up 6.7% in August from a year earlier, against a national gain of slightly under 2.1% — and Chicago has led the 19-city index, or come in second, for months running.
The driver is supply. The number of city homes on the market in September was down nearly 21% from a year earlier — the lowest level since the Chicago Association of Realtors began keeping records in early 2007. With so little to choose from, buyers who have to move — a growing family, a new job — end up paying what the few available homes command. The suburbs tell a split story: metro-wide inventory fell 8.4%, though DuPage County actually had 13.7% more homes for sale than a year ago and Will County 2.5% more.
One seasonal footnote: September’s medians were the highest ever recorded for a September, but they’re still well below the summer peak — June’s medians hit $425,000 in the city and $407,000 across the metro — and September was the first month the city median dipped below $400,000 since February, as the usual fall cooldown set in.
For the Southport Corridor, the takeaway is the same one sellers here have enjoyed for two years now: desirable Lakeview blocks plus record-low inventory is a recipe for prices that keep climbing faster than almost anywhere else in the country.