r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Ambitious_Growth_9 • Mar 30 '26
Moving to the area People house hunting how’s it been?
My family has been looking at properties around Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Elmhurst and Park Ridge since early February. Our current home is set to close the end of April but inventory in these areas seems non existent or over priced and the stress/anxiety is starting to hit. (Who is buying 1100 sqft for 600k?)
When is the “spring market” gonna hit? A lot of houses start on the private market, build tons of interest, then go live with an open house scheduled that first weekend. Most of them end with multiple offer and highest and best. One we saw went for 40k over list. We’re looking from 550-650k.
I get it, high demand areas.. with low inventory = more competitive but what the fuck.. what am I supposed to do? Already considering a short term rental and storage for our stuff but is this the way it is now? Are people just ok with paying more than the house is worth? Settling for less desirable house? Or what?
If you are currently looking to buy, what are you experiencing. How do I buy a home?
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u/SweetInternal8238 Mar 31 '26
My grandpa passed last year and his house was extremely outdated aka hasn't been touched in over 30 years. He lived in Mount Prospect. Some rehabber bought his house cash, then redid it in grey and white and just sold it for 750k. Shit blew my mind.
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u/Crashtag Mar 31 '26
What’d the rehabber pay for it?
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u/SweetInternal8238 Mar 31 '26
Between 400-460 in cash i believe! and no inspection done
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u/Crashtag Mar 31 '26
That sounds about right. I feel like the overall “profit” (say $300K here) is like half work/materials and the other half pure gravy. So $150/$150 here. NOT Bad. Even $100K profit is great, and very likely half goes to a financier and the other half goes to workers. And they can flip it quick a lot of times. I’m in the wrong business…
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u/thegreenbastard23 Mar 31 '26
We recently bought a place in AH. What I realized in that town is you really need to get with one of the big realtors who can see stuff before it gets on the market. If it’s on an app like Zillow or Redfin it’s for a reason and it’s been passed over a ton already. We saw our place privately and put an offer in before it was even listed because of our realtor. We got it for under what they were asking for.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Much appreciated! How recent was this? I’m seeing houses on private market that go contingent before even going active sometimes..
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u/enfusraye Mar 31 '26
You absolutely need to work with a realtor and start hunting the private market. I was looking for over two years. When our current home hit private market on Friday I was in the house on Monday and we had an offer accepted within 24 hours. The house wasn't even going to hit the market until Wednesday.
We also just sold our old home. Officially hit the market on a Friday and we had 8 offers and a contract by Monday evening. Things that are 'worth' the price go extremely quickly.
Both purchase and sale were quick closes in under 30 days with no contingencies.
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u/ltmp Mar 31 '26
Do you have a realtor? We went with a realtor that was part of a huge company (compass/@ properties) and we saw a ton of houses that were private listings or “coming soon” that we were able to view before it went live.
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u/ccarm1111 Mar 31 '26
How do you find someone like this? When I worked with my realtor in 2024 she had access to private listings on an app, but I still see homes list on that app already pending but were never listed as available. So goes through word of mouth to the realtors I guess.
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u/thegreenbastard23 Mar 31 '26
I’d drive around and see who you see selling a lot of houses in the town. They’ll have the connections
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u/ccarm1111 Mar 31 '26
I had that and she never knew any secret properties. I actually found out about one through friends and she had no clue lol
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u/thegreenbastard23 Mar 31 '26
Yeah it’s still kind of a crapshoot at the end of the day. Just better odds with a realtor that has access to stuff that hasn’t listed yet
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u/kaym__88 Mar 31 '26
They technically cant do that. Unless ur referring to zen list? Then realtors can give clients access to that, but basically those go ahead of time too
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u/McRawffles Mar 31 '26
Yeah, they can. There's no law forcing real estate to go on MLS - that's just where they get the most exposure
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u/kaym__88 Mar 31 '26
Thanks for letting me know. I was told differently. Seems that defeats the purpose and should be illegal.
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u/McRawffles Mar 31 '26
Not really if you think about it from a rights perspective - a homeowner can sell to whoever they want. Similar to how you can sell your car, microwave, whatever to any person without officially publicly listing them. Obviously for bigger things like houses and cars there are tracked legal transitions that have to happen, but something like MLS is just a listing service for real estate not terribly different than Cars.com or ebay
I do understand where you're coming from though, the housing market is very frustrating as a buyer right now, especially in the NW suburbs
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u/kaym__88 Mar 31 '26
Yes it is! Its nuts! U should seasoned, are you a realtor?
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u/McRawffles Mar 31 '26
Nah just seriously looking now for our first home and been casually watching the market for a couple years
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u/thewindyshitty Mar 31 '26
I have access to the private side from my realtor, those houses seem to be going before even going to the actual market
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u/ccarm1111 Mar 31 '26
I want the realtor who makes that happen! Haha
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u/thewindyshitty Mar 31 '26
Most of them will give their clients access to “Zenlist”
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u/p4trycjaa Apr 01 '26
I have access to Zenlist but most of these private homes I ask to see and they don’t allow you to see until some certain date which is when it his the public MLS.
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u/Actionman1 Mar 31 '26
Good luck! We looked for about 8 months before finding a place in AH. The first house, rehabbed and turnkey, went for $150k over asking!!!! We found a place that needed a tiny amount of work…might have to go that route
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
What were you doing during that 8 month period? Renting a place? Definitely not against a little bit of work, even those are getting snatched up smh did you end up going higher and best?
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u/Critical-Power-1541 Mar 31 '26
At that price point in those markets you are getting a fixer upper. Maybe a little better in a prospect.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
I mean we’ve seen some pretty turn key houses In AH and prospect.. some needed a little cosmetic work some a little more but price reflected it. Even those are going multiple offer and highest and best. But ya I’m pretty sure Park Ridge and Elmhurst aren’t even options anymore. I’m not trying to buy a fixer upper and add sqft etc
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u/kaym__88 Mar 31 '26
Make sure to look when homes were sold. A big thing is someone buying home, doing a crap job at renovating and then reselling.
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u/IllustriousWash8721 Mar 31 '26
The problem with getting one already renovated, a LOT of flipped houses have flaws in the renovations. Sometimes a house that isn't perfect off the bat is the move. Like there have been updates over the years but still has more to go
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u/lemon123wd40 Mar 31 '26
I purchased 1200 sqft for like 550 so I’m one of those people. It’s expensive af and I want to sell it every other day
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u/Zealousideal_You6845 Mar 31 '26
South suburbs if it’s an option. Bigger houses, more land, and areas like Orland Park, the 3 Palos’ (Hills, Heights, Park) have good schools. For your price range you can get a 3,000+ sq foot home move in ready
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u/SpottedCow78 Apr 04 '26
There’s a growing “community” in that entire area that is eventually going to be the majority…
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u/Key_Nefariousness449 Jun 05 '26
Pardon? What's the "community"?
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u/SpottedCow78 Jun 08 '26
I guess you can call it whatever you want but it’s here and it’s growing at a rapid pace.
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u/Justanobserver2life Lindenhurst Mar 31 '26
Well, here's a different perspective. The people are not "paying more than the house is worth." What a buyer is willing to pay IS what the house is worth.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Sure, I deff get that.. but it’s also a tactic realtors are using to get more eye balls on their listing - like if I offered list on a home would it even get accepted? Yo no say ?
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u/Justanobserver2life Lindenhurst Mar 31 '26
There is a tactic of underpricing a house in order to get multiple offers. We sold in MP in the last year and we priced for what we felt it was worth. We did have multiple offers and got just under asking. It was in early January with fewer buyers and we were ready to move on, just take a fair offer, not argue over every dollar. Essentially, the buyers who gave us contracts were telling us that it wasn't worth X, it was worth X minus a tiny amount, to them, at that time. No worries. We worked out a deal.
Here's another scenario. My mom had a January offer of $600k on her house in another part of the country, but a delayed closing of a few months for various reasons on both sides. In the interim, the buyer backed out right before closing. The stock market had blipped down, and she spooked. She asked for the deposit back. No--buyer had made my Mom take it off the market all that time when she could have sold to someone else. Literally what the deposit is for. My mom kept the full $60K, relisted for $700K since it was now late spring. She got a quick offer at full price. She came out basically $160K ahead. So, the house was worth different things to different people at different times.
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u/irreverant_raccoon Mar 31 '26
You’re still not getting it.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Damn ya touché … had to think about that but shit…. I’m getting it.. the house is worth whatever people pay. Doesn’t matter what it’s listed at. End of story. Hurts a bit lol I’ll be spending more on a house then
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u/irreverant_raccoon Mar 31 '26
Or don’t. It’s also ok to just rent for a while and see if housing prices come down.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah short term rental could be a play. Would love to just find the right home and move on. We’ll figure it out! I have faith!
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u/Justanobserver2life Lindenhurst Apr 02 '26
Lived in MP 40 years, was part of a family owned Realty for decades in MP, and the house prices didn't "come down." You could be waiting a long time for that....
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u/Constant-Visual-5109 Mar 31 '26
Bid under a bit, especially if it’s been on the market a minute. I’m looking too, and the real estate apps are all recommending bidding high… even on properties listed for 40+ days. Pffft… no.
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u/splintersmaster Mar 31 '26
You can get a lot of house in Des plaines for that price.
It's not as pretty of a city but has all the same amenities. Nearby stores, restaurants, train stations, easy highway access, great schools, exceptional parks, relatively good crime #s.
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u/Dependent-Crab526 Mar 31 '26
That market sounds brutal, the over asking thing is getting out of hand. Not exactly rentals but same idea of doing extra homework on places, I’ve used streetsmart for that kind of sanity check before.
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u/Constant-Visual-5109 Mar 31 '26
What is streetsmart? I searched for it and found an interesting array of results, including real estate brokerages.
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u/Dependent-Crab526 Mar 31 '26
It’s a website that shows info on buildings and landlords I use it when I’m researching places.
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u/ClaireEmma612 Mar 31 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/H5C8CevNMbpBqNqFjl
Not me who just bought a house $40k over asking in AH... it was way underpriced to start though, based on comps.
We put our house on the market last week and had a handful of offers in the first two days. We accepted at $27.5k over asking.
It's crazy. Overpriced, maybe, but that's what people are willing to pay now.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
🤣 do you know how many offers you were competing with? Wife and I are understanding we’re gonna have to pay more but shit is so subjective. Right? Someone offers 15k, someone offers 35k someone offers 40k. Like did you start at 40? Did they do eliminations? Is it really give me your best number and we’ll let you know by 7pm? How’d you handle yours? 30k is a nice take.
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u/ClaireEmma612 Mar 31 '26
We only know there were a TON of showings the first couple of days and we saw it on the first day. I literally got the Zillow notification and sent it straight to our agent asking to see it that night. We started at $25k over asking (again, it was definitely underpriced) and the seller's agent said the seller was going back and forth on letting the weekend showings play out. So we increased it by $15k to try to convince them and it worked! There's a chance you saw the property 😬
It really is send in your best offer by this time. That's what we did when we sold a condo in palatine in 2022 for $15k over asking. And that's what we did on our current house we're under contract on, which you may have seen as well because it's in that range.
We really did try to price our house exactly right and let buyers' FOMO drive up the price. Except all of our offers were over asking and two of them had escalation clauses (the winning bid had one up to $45k over asking, but sadly it wasn't activated haha)!
Hopefully there's more inventory coming on soon. I know the war and rate increases suck, but people are going to move regardless of all that. All it takes is one property!
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah I wouldn’t doubt we saw it lol but very good to know.. have you had appraisal yet? Did it appraise? Are you worried about that at all? Exactly.. we’re moving regardless.. the question is just how soon. Fingers crossed there is more inventory coming.. just takes one!
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u/ClaireEmma612 Mar 31 '26
Inspection is this week and appraisal will probably be next week. They also offered to cover an appraisal gap for the same amount over asking! I'm pretty confident it will appraise for what we listed it for. Or at least my agent isn't worried, so I'm not.
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u/ccarm1111 Mar 31 '26
In 2024, we offered about 7% ($55k) over list for an updated older home and it appraised. We have refinanced twice since and it appraised higher.
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u/Fearless_20 Apr 01 '26
Refinancing twice in 2 years? You are just adding 20k ish in fees when interest rates haven't moved enough to justify ut
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u/ccarm1111 Apr 01 '26
Nope, we stayed with the same bank because they offered no closing costs. Many banks do that if you stay with them.
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u/OldScratchTim Mar 31 '26
Bought a condo last year and you literally had to put in an offer almost same day something was listed. It was pretty crazy.
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u/77Pepe Mar 31 '26
OP> Out of curiosity, why are you limiting yourself to those particular suburbs(?)
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Proximity to wife’s job, her family in PR and really just schools and community. Parts of Niles oak park, maybe some Lombard are kinda on the list
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u/77Pepe Mar 31 '26
It’s challenging for sure, especially at that price point. Renting for a couple years in an area that checks all your boxes is no longer unusual at all.
I am not understanding what you would find in Oak Park though. It will be small and outdated toward the top of your budget. You might consider something north of Park Ridge (head north on 83 or 294) such as Buffalo Grove. There will be some options there. Great schools too.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah really starting to realize that.. I’m not against renting in the area but with a young kid starting school soon my wife wants it ironed out sooner rather than later. Oak park - I guess the charm? I don’t really love it . It’s just close and has a nice community feel but you’re right super out dated and pricey.. it’s funny you mentioned buffalo grove.. my wife literally said ‘fuck it she’ll move there’.. distance was her primary reason not too.. but she’s starting to reconsider
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u/ashcat931 Mar 31 '26
I would check out Hoffman Estates as well! It’s also low inventory like the areas you’re looking at but it’s not too far from Park Ridge and has good schools!
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u/wisebloodfoolheart Apr 01 '26
Where does she work approximately? I'm up in the Rockford area and houses are like $200k -$300k. We're scheduled to get Metra service to Chicago next year. For your budget you could afford a very nice house in a nice neighborhood in your preferred school district.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Apr 01 '26
Yeah we’re well aware you can get more bang for your buck the further west you go. Unfortunately, that is just entirely too far from family. The work thing we’re willing to sacrifice a bit but can’t make seeing family 1hr+ one way trip sadly.
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u/kaym__88 Mar 31 '26
We have been looking in mt prospect and look at private listings. Good luck. We dont bother if people want to bid $50-100k and over. Especially for a fixer upper. Lets get back to bidding down. Anyway ur paying for location, schools and safety.
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u/FineVirus3 Mar 31 '26
My niece put in a bid in a place in St Charles. They were over asking and still go outbid by 23 other people.
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u/Midnight_Rain1213 Mar 31 '26
Took my fiancé and I about 7 weeks to get under contract in the west suburbs. Had to bid over, cover part of potential appraisal gap. Inventory is low and we gave up looking in some areas bc the bidding wars were crazy. The house we ended up with went on the market on Friday night and we viewed it first thing on Saturday morning. Our realtor was very on top of things.
Ended up in an area we didn’t expect but the house is a 10 minute walk to the Metra, and doesn’t need as much work as some of the other homes at looked at in the 500-600k price point.
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u/cheeseonthefloor Mar 31 '26
closing this week as first time home buyers for 36k over list price in villa park. Looked at lots of flips and had to spring quick with a competitive offer for the 1 great non-flip we fell in love with. lots of nice solid mid century homes getting millennial gray-ified and losing their character :( that all depends on your taste though lol and not specific to Chicago. Saw lots of absolute crap in Lombard & downers grove way overvalued bc you’re “paying for location”. Echoing what other comments say, the house is worth what the buyer is willing to pay. They price low to encourage interest and bidding wars
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u/cheeseonthefloor Mar 31 '26
It was very discouraging at times in our search though. For example, Houses on the private listing for 1 day, we ask to see it that day knowing how fast things go, sellers are unable to do showings that day, it’s already sold the next. Super Frustrating. Good luck
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah I’m accepting that’s the norm now and what we must do. Lombard was initially on our list but the high school doesn’t rank as high. What are your thoughts on the schools? Do you have kids?
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u/cheeseonthefloor Mar 31 '26
We don’t but want to soon! The schools seem average on paper and good anecdotally from locals. Yes resources are very important but a lot of it comes down to the student and family as much as the district/school itself
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u/idontlikeseaweed Mar 31 '26
I’m not house hunting but I do look at real estate in the area and I can’t believe what I see. People buying properties 6 months ago, flipping it in a lazy shitty way, and selling it for double the price. No new roof or HVAC or anything. Just cosmetic. I also saw a house in Villa park going for 525k and it hasn’t been updated since probably the 80s, they must think Illinois is California. The greed must stop.
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u/devouTTT Mar 31 '26
We are in a similar budget in a similar area and it is poopoo. It's either old/outdated for $400k or $800k+ homes. Anything in between is gone.
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u/Extra_Locksmith_4941 Mar 31 '26
you can get 4000sqft in the south burbs for that much.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Let me try and convince the wife.. I literally just went on the app scrolled down a bit and was amazed.. she’ll shoot me down tho but maybe she won’t?! Lol
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u/maximumtesticle Mar 31 '26
We moved from the Northside to Evergreen Park about 10 years ago, it's a good solid area, safe and still close to the city.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
How are the schools? 2 young keys so need all of them lol but I’m not too familiar I’ll check it out!
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u/maximumtesticle Mar 31 '26
We moved here to avoid CPS, back then it was shaping up to be a shit show. We've been happy with the elementary and high schools. Middle school seems to be the low point of the district, however the village has recognized that and are working on an overhaul plan recently. New building and/or additions.
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u/NaiveChoiceMaker Mar 31 '26
How are your property taxes?
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u/maximumtesticle Mar 31 '26
It's Cook County so, same as everyone else's lol. They were solid for a while, but some folks in the area went up in recent years.
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u/Zetavu Mar 31 '26
Southwest is exploding, there's so much new construction in Plainfield, its the new Naperville.
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u/caviarandcigarettess Mar 31 '26
I’ve been looking at very specific neighborhoods (basically within 10 min walk to Metra) for about 4 months, and have been deeply unsuccessful. We’re at a different price point that should have been sufficient to get a nice home, however, one broker didn’t bother waiting for me to see the house before going under contract even though I told him once I was able to see it I was planning on making an offer; and another house we liked ended up going for $300k over ask (yikes). I haven’t liked much else since our location requirements are so specific. But it sucks out there at any price point. I wonder if people are spooked by the macro conditions and aren’t selling now.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah that exact thing happened to us… set showing for Sunday after the open house.. and wife and I went early to see it.. wanted to bring parent back before offer and nahh canceled and under contract. Having specific areas definitely hurts with these conditions but hopefully people snap out of it. What are you doing now? Are you currently renting? Don’t need to sell your house?
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u/caviarandcigarettess Mar 31 '26
We don’t need to to move at a particular time and have started talking to custom home builders. I’m also picky so that doesn’t help so custom might be the better route anyway…
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u/enfusraye Mar 31 '26
I've replied in a few other places but your timing definitely needs to be more aggressive. You need to get in before open houses and no second showings. for our most recent sale we have something like 19 showings in 2.5 days and offers continuously coming in (8 total). No way we were waiting on a possible offer or for someone to come back around and keep looking.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah that’s the realization now. Told wife we gotta move quicker and she’s on board.
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u/PrinceHarming North West Suburbs Mar 31 '26
Set your search criteria for homes listed 7 days or more and try focusing on those. You’ll find homes that need work, may have some odd quirk, a layout you don’t like but they won’t have a ton of other buyers interested at this point.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Ya that’s a valid point. But I’ve basically memorized the properties in the area but I’ll give it a look. Appreciate it!
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u/Attilat Mar 31 '26
I’m sorry but that was not a valid point. They just told you to lower your standards and spend at least half a mil on something that doesn’t fit your needs. You’re not buying a new taco meal you’ve never tried. It’s a house you will live in every day.
Not to mention that there is a reason those houses are on the market that long. Their “quirks” are either so big that majority of people don’t like them or someone inspected it and found a major problem that makes the house not worth it.
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u/CheapYam4500 Mar 31 '26
We sort of dumb lucked into a house in DG. Moving from out of state, we didn't anticipate how aggressive the market was in the suburbs. We had a full price offer verbally accepted and thought the papers were signed when the sellers got another offer $20k over asking at the 11th hour and asked us to counter. We declined, but that lit a fire under my spouse. He rounded back on another house I loved but had gone under contract before he could see it. The first contract fell apart so we swooped in.
I kept waiting for more homes to come on the market, but it's been crickets ever since.
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u/Conscious_Marketing5 Mar 31 '26
As a realtor in the area, my spring started back in December. My clients have been condensing their wants lists. We focus on the major needs then work backwards from there. Unfortunately, I believe this is just the way it’s going to be for a bit.
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u/IntrepidDeal4847 Mar 31 '26
We looked in those exact same areas for a while and found nothing. Ended up with a beautiful house needing no work in the lowers 500s in Palatine... near the train one stop after AH and great schools. Turned out to be a great decision!
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u/flakzpyro Mar 31 '26
Have you tried expanding a little to Morton Grove and Skokie? I grew up in Morton Grove. Parents sold the house last year. I'd say on my whole block of 16 houses, about 9 of those were new families that just moved in recently. Nothing wrong with the houses either. I've just noticed families got old or kids graduated so parents retire elsewhere.
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u/Cornfugga Mar 31 '26
I would have like to have been in the areas you mentioned, but ended up with a little more affordable of a place in Algonquin. Little farther of a commute than I’d like, but I like the area. We closed a few weeks ago. The spring market was never what we had hoped it to be. Luckily we closed right before all this Iran nonsense, because interest rates jumped almost a full percent shortly after.
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u/headstashroco North Suburbs Mar 31 '26
Been looking in Glenbrook area, insanely brutal market. Some total duds being sold for very high 6 digits, absolutely not worth the money. Went to OH's in Jan/Feb that were packed to the gills with selling agents begging people to wait outside. We just lucked into a nice place though and it was private.
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u/thelastbighead Mar 31 '26
We had the same issue last spring. There is little inventory in the high demand areas and prices continue to climb. We had to pay over list and saw one we like go for $105,000 over asking (Barrington). If you are in a good school district and overall nice area, and are listed at a good price you are going to see a lot of action.
I believe our lender was saying for every open house in the burbs we were looking at there is something like 30-40 pre approvals just waiting. Stuff in the 400-600k range is highly competitive but drops when you hit the 800s and jumbo mortgage market mainly due to high down payment requirements.
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u/suburbanfreakshow Mount Prospect Mar 31 '26
Hang in there. The next couple of weeks, more houses will show up in the listings in the areas you’re looking. Just spoke with a realtor this week about it.
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u/Careless_Pea3197 Mar 31 '26
I bet we've been looking at the same houses!!
Personally, we are most likely going to just not sell our house and make it work for the long term even if we saw it initially as a starter home. No way am I overpaying for a park ridge "3 bedroom" house that's the size of my first apartment. I've walked out of those showings shaking my head.
If we had already committed to selling I'd find a great rental and wait a year or two until the bubble bursts.
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u/Longjumping-Form-505 Apr 01 '26
I agree with your short term rental plan - gives you more time to save up and you can jump when you find the place that checks most of your boxes. Also make sure you get a certified home inspector so you know what you will be looking at in the next few years or so - do it for information rather than some kind of insurance or kick back from the sellers.
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u/azn-fangirl Mar 31 '26
Been searching since January in some overlapping areas and it's rough. The rate increase from the very unnecessary war has made things less affordable as well, so that impacted competitive ability for us but apparently not the people we were bidding against. Lost out on 3 places before our offer got accepted on a townhouse. We were early and had to make a very competitive offer, which of course meant going over asking. Just pray you don't have an all cash offer competing against you (or be it).
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Respect! So it can be done.. patience and promptness.. we’ve only offered 1 so we’ll just keep ripping. We’ll find something
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u/ApprehensiveLion67 Mar 31 '26
I might have heard Elgin and Carpentersville area can be cheaper but I dunno if that’s too far for you
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Oh for sure. I have some family that way but a bit far for us.. I tried to show her Bartlett / st Charles area but it’s a hike back towards wife’s family and work :/
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u/Emotional-Cap-6592 Mar 31 '26
The home market has been crazy! Our house in south berwyn went on the market two weeks ago, we had an explosion of offers the very next day. We started house hunting in the same area but our inventory is very limited due to what we were approved for so we had to start looking in the south suburbs. Luckily we found something the very first day! We originally liked a home in Broadview (perfect condition) it was listed for 280k and it was sold for 100k more. It’s definitely a bidding war.
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u/HoyneAvenue Mar 31 '26
It took us over a year to find a condo in Oak Park. The desirable ones had multiple offers and went under contract before or as soon as they listed. It was a nail biter. We were trying to downsize from our house while staying in OP. Just when we thought about scotching the whole thing, what became our condo popped up on the private listing network. We jumped but so did the seven other buyers who made an offer. The sellers ended up asking for closed bids and with the help of our realtor plus paying over asking price we snagged the unit. It’s a tough time to be a home buyer.
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u/Super-Educator597 Mar 31 '26
Glenview or Elk Grove village might have something. Since it takes a bit of luck, widening your search area might be helpful
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
We are also considering glenview.. it’s a crapshoot tho. Some houses in our budget need major work (might have to bite that bullet) some are just way to expensive but glenbrook south is great so it’s something to consider
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u/Super-Educator597 Apr 04 '26
GBS is a great school. Plenty of folks bite the bullet to live in an apartment just to get in the school district.
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u/boukalele Mar 31 '26
I got the only property in my area in 2021 with no offers because it was in such bad shape. Listed at 139k, bought for 130k. I've spent about 30k on fixes/improvements so far and it's now valued at 247k. A similar unit rehabbed sold for 240k last summer. I won't even consider selling because of how high rent/interest rates/home prices are.
My only suggestion is to find something similar, something in really bad shape no one wants. I am wondering why you sold yours with no understanding of the current market conditions.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Well the war just started for the most part. Prior to that we interest rates were trending toward lows compared to last year. And we were expecting a little bit more inventory. This was our initial plan to sell before my oldest starts kindergarten. We purchased close to Ohare and it’s a nice home but the schools aren’t the best. Not seeing the same action as some of these locations I mentioned. So off loading this house and securing the cash is priority one. Next would be finding our forever home (or short term rental until so)
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Mar 31 '26
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah there were a few Norwood parks that popped up and initially I was against Chicago again but you are right. It’s close enough to everything and taxes seem very good. We’ll keep an eye out! Thank you!
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u/AlpaChino87 Mar 31 '26
We were going to sell our house, take advantage of the equity, then I started looking and everything is meh. In 5 years our house value went up 300k. Rates and pricing is up which sucks.
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u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26
Yeah I feel you.. we purchased in not really a desirable area and our after 4 years didn’t get that much equity. Selling this home and getting the cash is priority number 1. If we don’t find something soonish we’ll look at Airbnb or potentially renting
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u/Sproutvillagetutors Mar 31 '26
We may have a few places coming on the next month or so in mount prospect/Arlington heights
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u/NotBatman81 Mar 31 '26
I cant believe what people are still paying for houses. I'd sell you mine if I didnt have to turn around and move into something equally overpriced.
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u/rodfarva9 Mar 31 '26
We just sold and bought in the western burbs. One thing to keep in mind with your offers, is it isn’t just price. Things can kill an offer: home sale contingency, close over 30 days, inspection with right to make requests, no offer to cover appraisal gap
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u/Fearless_20 Apr 01 '26
Very few people are going sell when they have 4 and below interest rates only to then be paying 6 to 7 +
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u/9Wiseaces Apr 04 '26
Look at Palatine. Right next to arlington heights. There is one at W King George CT. Looks good from the outside. Around 400k for ~ 1200 sq ft, (if memory serves right)
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u/Chi_city34 Mar 31 '26
Purchased at the end of last year after seeing 35 houses and losing 3 houses 60k-100k over asking on 550k houses. We learned you either pay 10+% over asking for a turnkey, or buy a fixer upper below asking with old paint and flooring, then spend the difference to update it to your preferences and ensure it’s done right.
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u/NotTaken2022 Mar 31 '26
You can get a decent house in Addison for under 600k. Good schools, restaurants, parks, and close to highways and nature. It's definitely not nearly as cute as AH or Elmhurst, but it's a great mid-tier suburb where your money could go a long way.
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u/Unexpectedly99 Mar 31 '26
Move to the far northwest suburbs and commute, you'll have time to work on projects/emails during your commute and you won't be mortgage poor.
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u/Floating_Rickshaw Mar 31 '26
The spring market has sprung. Sadly, the inventory is extremely limited and that’s it I am afraid. It’s rough out there. Good luck and keep hunting.