April 21, 2026 – In the posh neighborhoods of Lincoln Park and Old Town, the dearth of luxury existing-homes for sale has left the market resembling a dry beach with only a few scattered pebbles for wealthy house hunters. As a result, prices are soaring.
A first-quarter 2026 Baird & Warner report highlights a crisis-level listing shortage. According to Mary Jo Nathan of Baird & Warner, the median price of a detached single-family home has skyrocketed 102.5 percent to a whopping $3.15 million – double the median price from a year ago.
“In the current market, ‘asking price’ is merely a suggestion,” said a broker with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty. “Sales prices are routinely 10 percent over the list price when multiple offers are present.”
Benson said two mansions sold and closed for over $6 million in the first quarter of the year. And three luxury homes sold and closed at more than $4 million.
“Fourteen more posh homes in the neighborhood have sold and closed at prices over $3 million,” Benson said.
The top first-quarter 2026 sale price was $6.5 million for a home on “Mansion Row” at 1964 North Burling Street. Nearby, another mansion at 1722 North Burling Street sold for $6.050 million.
Near North/Gold Coast median price hits $3.65M
The Near North/Gold Coast recorded a stratospheric median price of $3.65 million, soaring 35.2 percent over the first quarter of 2025, Baird & Warner reported.
In North Center, another hot North Side neighborhood, single-family median prices catapulted 18.2 percent to $1.74 million over the year-ago first quarter, according to Baird & Warner.
“In March, home-listing inventory plummeted more than 30 percent across all segments compared with March of 2025, and new offerings remain significantly below a year ago,” noted veteran Baird & Warner broker John Irwin, co-author of the April 2026 “Chicago North Side Market Report” with broker Jackie Lafferty.
“Mid-market priced homes and listings in Lincoln Park saw the largest pullbacks in March, with transactions in North Center showing the most strength in the marketplace,” Irwin observed. “However, median prices continued to increase, despite a sales dearth.”
“The housing supply shortage remains a thorny issue with no easy solutions in sight. The fact that political leaders at both the national and state level are making efforts to address it underscores the impact it’s having across the country, but the problem seems especially acute on the North Side.”
Besides a shortage of listings, lofty home-loan interest rates also haunted the early 2026 market. On April 16, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (above) reported that average benchmark 30-year fixed home loans nationwide were at 6.30 percent, down slightly from 6.37 percent a week earlier. A year ago, 30-year loans averaged 6.83 percent.
Why the North Side’s $450,000 blended median price is deceiving
In the first quarter of 2026, Baird & Warner reported that combined sales of single-family homes and attached residences were down 14.5 percent from the results posted one year earlier.
Only 1,494 properties changed hands, according to data from MRED, the regional multiple listing service. The 1,027 listings on the market at the close of the first quarter were 24.7 percent fewer than at the same point last year.
Prepared quarterly by Nathan of Baird & Warner’s North Center office at 4037 North Damen Avenue, the broader North Side quarterly report tracks sales of single-family and attached homes in 11 North Side neighborhoods – Edgewater, Lake View, Lincoln Park/Old Town, Lincoln Square, Near North/Gold Coast, North Center, Rogers Park, Uptown, and West Ridge.
“Single-family homes accounted for just 7.8 percent of first-quarter transactions, compared with 9.7 percent a year earlier,” she said.
Because those homes generally sell at much higher prices than attached homes across the North Side, the shift in the mix of sales away from single-family homes will hold down any increase in the median sales price even when home prices are broadly trending upward.
Short supply, fast sales
Along with rising home prices, the average time it took for a home sold during the quarter to go under contract shortened, averaging 59 days compared to 72 days a year earlier.
“The housing supply shortage remains a thorny issue with no easy solutions in sight,” noted Nathan. “The fact that political leaders at both the national and state level are making efforts to address it underscores the impact it’s having across the country, but the problem seems especially acute on the North Side.”
People seeking to sell their current home and purchase a new one can’t sell until they find a replacement property, or “they run the risk of ending up with no place to live,” Nathan said.
Analysts also note that thousands of existing homeowners are not going to market because they prefer to hang on to their below-market 3-to-4 percent mortgages.
Near North condo sales fall with sparse listings
Sales of North Side condominiums, co-ops, and townhomes fell 12.7 percent for the quarter to 1,377 units, while the median sales price rose 4.9 percent to $425,000. Average market time decreased by 12 days to 58 days.
Sales activity rose in three North Side neighborhoods. Lincoln Square had the largest gain, up 29.3 percent on 53 sales. Other neighborhoods posting increases were Edgewater, up 8.3 percent, and Uptown, which gained 4.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the Near North/Gold Coast, the city’s largest market for condos and co-ops, saw sales fall 17 percent to 467 units, which resulted, at least in part, from a 28 percent drop in the Near North/Gold Coast listing inventory.
The median sales price for condos increased in five neighborhoods, with three of those seeing double-digit gains. They were: West Ridge, where the median was up 25 percent to $220,000; Uptown, which gained 11.7 percent to $335,000, and Edgewater, where the median rose 10.6 percent. The other gainers were Near North/Gold Coast, up 8.1 percent to $465,000, and North Center, up 3.3 percent to $600,000.
Among the four neighborhoods where median condo prices declined, only Lincoln Square saw a significant shift, with its median falling a hefty 21.5 percent to $335,000. The median price also slipped 2 percent in Lincoln Park/Old Town to $669,950, 2 percent in Rogers Park to $240,000, and 1.2 percent in Lake View to $449,000.
Single-family sales plummet as inventory dries up
Overall, North Side single-family homes sales fell 31.2 percent in the first quarter to 117 units. The median sales price increased 9.9 percent to $1.55 million – the second-highest-ever recorded for this market segment.
Average time on the market for all North Side homes that sold during the quarter was 74 days, 23 days less than during the first quarter last year.
“Sales were down or flat in all North Side neighborhoods except Edgewater, where the increase was just one additional sale,” Nathan said. “Except for Lincoln Park/Old Town, which had 25 single-family listings at the end of the quarter, none of the North Side neighborhoods had more than 12 single-family properties listed at that point, and most had 10 or fewer.”
With so few homes changing hands, it also wasn’t surprising that median prices bounced around, with double-digit increases and declines quite common.
In addition to Lincoln Park/Old Town, Near North/Gold Coast, and North Center, other median-price gainers were West Ridge, up 17.3 percent to $610,000, and Lincoln Square, up 5 percent to $1.005 million.
On the flipside, the median price fell a hefty 14.4 percent in Uptown to $1.425 million, and 13.2 percent in Edgewater to $1.05 million. Prices declined 11.1 percent in Rogers Park to $642,500, and 9.6 percent in Lake View to $1.853 million.
