Chicago, IL Housing Market 2026: What Homes Actually Sell For

Chicago produces a steady stream of closings but little consensus: sales over the last six months span a range wide enough that the median is a midpoint between different markets, not a going rate. The distribution below matters more than the headline.

The snapshot

• •Closings tracked, last 6 months: 15,540
• •Median sold price, last 6 months: $405,000
• •Median sold $/sqft, last 6 months: $292
• •Middle half of sales closed between: $259,000 and $660,000

What the numbers say

Resideline tracked 15,540 closed sales in Chicago over the last six months, with a median closing price of $405,000. That median is the midpoint of what buyers actually paid, not what sellers hoped to get, which is why it moves differently from the asking prices you see on listing sites. The middle half of those sales closed between $259,000 and $660,000. That spread matters more than the headline median: where a specific property sits inside it decides whether the citywide number helps you or misleads you. These are the closings Resideline tracks and may differ from complete county or municipal records. The large tracked sample provides substantial market-level evidence. Across the 12,676 closings with usable living area, the middle half sold between $192 and $399 per square foot.

Figures last updated August 22, 2026 from closings Resideline tracked.

Median home price in Chicago, IL (August 2026)

The median home price in Chicago is $405,000, measured across the 15,540 closed sales Resideline tracked over the last six months. The middle half of those sales closed between $259,000 and $660,000.

Where Chicago sale prices land

Medians hide the shape of a market. The distribution above covers the closed sales Resideline tracked in Chicago over the last six months, trimmed to the 5th through 95th percentile, with the middle half of sales closing between $259,000 and $660,000. Where your target property sits inside that spread matters more than the citywide median.

How long a sale takes here

• •Listed to under contract: a median of 32 days, across 6,452 Chicago closings Resideline tracked in the last six months
• •Contract to closing: a median of 14 days, across 4,009 Chicago closings Resideline tracked in the last six months

The Chicago angle

Chicago combines a very deep closing sample with a very wide price band, and you need the first to survive the second. Resideline tracked 15,540 closings over the last six months; the median closed sale price was $405,000 and the middle half of sales closed between $259,000 and $660,000, a spread among the widest we track. A citywide median at that width will not price an individual property, so use it only to check that your comp set has not drifted somewhere strange. Then spend the depth of the sample, which sits in the top 10% we track, on tight matching rather than on volume for its own sake.

What is being reported about the Chicago market

The numbers above are what we measure from tracked closings. Alongside them, here is what local and national coverage is reporting, from the source:

• •Redfin's economics team reported that Cook County's median sale price hit $396,338 in July 2026, up 8.6% year over year versus roughly 3% nationally, with only 11.3% of active listings carrying a price cut and the typical home selling for 1.1% above list price (Redfin (Redfin Economics Team blog), Aug 04, 2026)
• •Chicago Agent Magazine reported that Illinois Realtors data showed the nine-county Chicago metro median home price rose 4.6 percent year over year to $407,000 in June 2026, with the city of Chicago's median up 6.9 percent to $427,500 as inventory in the city fell 28.9 percent (Chicago Agent Magazine, Jul 27, 2026)
• •Redfin's Home Price Index report for June 2026 reported that Chicago home prices rose 9.9% year over year, the third-largest increase among major U.S. metros, behind only San Francisco (+10.8%) and Nassau County, NY (+10.1%) (Redfin News (Redfin Home Price Index), Jul 21, 2026)

Chicago market data by ZIP code

Citywide medians hide block-by-block variation. Resideline publishes free, regularly refreshed market snapshots for Chicago ZIP codes: 60611.

From market read to offer price

A spread this wide means the citywide number cannot price a specific address; the step that matters is the property-level read. The decision still comes down to one property and one number: what it is actually worth and what you should pay. Every Resideline report opens with this same market snapshot for the subject's exact ZIP code, then gives you the property's value, the sold comps behind it, and a market rent estimate. Pricing a specific deal? The free ARV calculator and rental property calculator run the numbers in about a minute.

And we show our work. Every estimate is frozen while the home is for sale and graded against the real closing price after it sells. As of August 2026, the public scoreboard showed 3.26% median error across 12,508+ graded closings. See the live accuracy dashboard for the receipts, or read how the Area Market Snapshot works.

Run any Chicago address through Resideline and you will see the local market and the property's value together, in one report.

Cite this

Using these numbers? Please cite the source and the sample size:

Source: Resideline Market Watch
Market: Chicago, IL
Data updated: August 2026
Analysis period: last six months
Tracked closings: 15,540
Median sold price: $405,000
Median sold $/sqft: $292 (12,676 qualifying)
https://resideline.com/blog/chicago-housing-market-2026

The local market statistics in this report are calculated from closed sales tracked by Resideline. Transaction coverage may differ from complete county or municipal records.

Every local market figure on this page is computed from closed sales Resideline tracked in Chicago over the last six months, and is refreshed when the data is. The closings we track inside the city limits are not limited to listing-service sales: they also include foreclosure deeds, estate and family transfers, and other off-market sales that portal medians exclude, which is why 20% of the 15,540 closings in this window never appeared on a listing service, and the median of MLS-listed sales alone was $420,000.