Chicago Home Prices Surge 5x Nation, Market Shock Builds
How Do Chicago Home Prices Compare Nationally? Nationally, Chicago’s housing market stands out less for absolute price than for the speed of its recent climb. Chicago remains cheaper than many national benchmarks. Redfin placed the city’s median sale price at $410,000 in March 2026, while the National Association of Realtors reported a $398,400 national median existing-home price in February 2025. Other Chicago measures came in lower, including a $334,250 median sale price and Zillow’s $317,283 typical home value. That leaves Chicago about 6 percent below the national average by one comparison. Chicago’s median sale price was also 15% lower than the U.S. median in Redfin’s December 2025 market snapshot. Growth Outpaces the Country Price growth tells a different story. Chicago posted gains between 2.8 percent and 5.83 percent, compared with 1.36 percent nationally. In other Midwest markets, rising housing inventory has coincided with slower price appreciation as affordability pressure...