Published October 25, 2026 in Market Update

Not Every Luxury Neighborhood Is Moving The Same Way On Price

By Maureen Moran

Real estate, Luxury

Redfin reported Chicago home prices rose 1% month over month in September. That number is real. It is also an average across the entire city. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted median sale prices across four neighborhoods for the three months ending August 31, 2026, and the range runs from 1.5% annual growth to 18.3%. One number cannot hold that spread.

The Range Is Wide

Lincoln Park, ZIP 60614, saw the sharpest move. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price at $850,000 for the three months ending August 31, 2026, up 18.3% from the same months in 2025. Lakeview, ZIP 60657, came in at $705,000, up 16.7%. Bucktown, ZIP 60622, reached $733,000, up 11.2%. Wicker Park, ZIP 60647, grew the least, at $690,000, up 1.5%. All four are moving. They are not moving the same way.

Median Sale Prices, Side By Side

Buyers Are Still Competing

Across all four neighborhoods, homes are selling above list price. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows Wicker Park leading at 65.1% of homes sold above list. Lakeview followed at 63.1%, Bucktown at 62.2%, and Lincoln Park at 57.1%. That last figure is still more than half of all sales. Sellers are not giving ground.

Speed tells a similar story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted median days on market at 37 days in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park, 38 in Lakeview, and 42 in Bucktown. Bucktown is the slowest of the four, and even there, homes are not sitting long.

Supply Is Tight Across The Board

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 648 homes for sale across all four neighborhoods combined for the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is down 11.1% from the same period a year earlier. Each neighborhood shrank on its own. Bucktown fell the most, down 21.3%. Lakeview dropped 12.5%. Lincoln Park was down 6.8%. Wicker Park fell 3.9%. Fewer choices for buyers tends to push prices up, and the price gains above reflect that.

The Broader Picture

Nationally, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Redfin reported U.S. home prices rose 3.8% year over year in September, the fastest annual growth since June 2025. The neighborhoods above are outpacing both of those figures by a wide margin, with the exception of Wicker Park, which is tracking closer to the national pace.

One cost worth noting: NBC real estate news reported that State Farm home insurance rates for Illinois homeowners are increasing an average of 8%. That is a real line item for anyone doing the math on a purchase or a sale.

The Wall Street Journal reported mortgage rates have recently surged above 7%. Realtor.com also noted rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. Nationally, Realtor.com found price cuts hit 20.8% of listings in September, the highest share since October 2022. That is not what the data above shows for these four neighborhoods. Local conditions are diverging from the national trend.

What This Means For Owners And Buyers

A city-level headline of 1% monthly growth, reported by Redfin, does not tell a Lincoln Park owner that their neighborhood median rose 18.3% year over year. It also does not tell a Wicker Park buyer that price growth there was 1.5%. Those are different conversations, and they lead to different decisions on timing and price.

I would encourage anyone thinking about pricing a home, or making an offer, to look at the block and the building type before settling on a number. Vintage walk-ups, newer condos, and single-family homes on the same street attract different buyers with different timelines. The aggregate numbers above are a starting point, not a finish line.