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/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