National headlines have been declaring 2026 a buyer’s market for months, and the numbers back that up almost everywhere — except Chicago. According to Redfin’s July 2026 report, 39 of the 49 largest U.S. metros, or 79%, now qualify as buyer’s markets, with sellers nationally outnumbering buyers by 51.3%. Chicago is not one of them.
On the city’s North Side, buyers are still losing bidding wars, according to WBEZ Chicago, which found single-family home inventory at its lowest level since 2008, with supply sitting under two months against a balanced-market benchmark of four to six months. In the 60657 ZIP code covering Lake View and Roscoe Village, 63.4% of homes sold above list price and 53% sold within a week, per data cited by the station. Citywide, roughly a quarter of homes sold in seven days or less as of the most recent figures, and about the same share sold above asking.
The premiums involved are not small. Broker Alley Ballard of @properties told WBEZ she has watched homes sell for “$100,000 to $200,000 — sometimes even $300,000 — above their asking price” across the city. One Lincoln Park listing went from a $1 million ask in April to a $1.2 million sale in May after drawing 17 offers, WBEZ reported. A Lake View condo that hadn’t hit the market in nearly 30 years sold for roughly $70,000 over its $329,900 asking price after multiple bids.
First-time buyers are absorbing the brunt of it. Michael Mutz, searching in Lincoln Park for nine months, told WBEZ he has repeatedly lost to all-cash bids: “The experience is not particularly rewarding… it’s taking forever.” Ellie Howie, two months into her own condo search, lost a Lake View property to six competing offers in June and said, “There’s just not a lot out there… going for oftentimes $100,000 over asking.”
Realtor Sammy Lubeck of Baird & Warner pointed to a pileup of demand: buyers who lost multiple bidding wars over the past four or five years, layered on top of a fresh wave of new buyers, all chasing a shrinking pool of listings. Zillow senior economist Orphe Divounguy told the station Chicago “is still too fast relative to the rest of the country,” since “inventory is not building fast enough” to cool things down the way it has nationally.
The disconnect comes down to supply that simply hasn’t loosened the way it has in Sun Belt metros like Miami, Nashville, and Houston, where Redfin’s data shows sellers now vastly outnumber buyers. Chicago’s inventory crunch, worsened by long-time owners staying put and new construction lagging demand, means the citywide numbers can say “buyer’s market” all they want. For someone actually trying to close on a house in Lincoln Park or Lake View this fall, the fight for a listing is exactly where it’s been for over a year.
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