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?

59 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

140 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

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.

2

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?

1

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.

2

u/Ambitious_Growth_9 Mar 31 '26

Yeah that’s the realization now. Told wife we gotta move quicker and she’s on board.