The slow housing market is affecting every city, even some of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago. Suburbs located in the Northwest and the North Shore like South Barrington, Barrington Hills and Lake Forest have been suffering with the rest of the country when it comes to buying and selling real estate.

According to Chicago Real Estate Daily the two largest sales in Lake Forest in 2010 were actually short sale homes. The largest sale went to a Georgian-style mansion located on Lake Street selling last April for $5.4 million.

A close runner-up was a mansion on Green Bay Road that sold in December for $4.8 million. Before the devastation in the housing market, it is said that both homes would have sold for upward of $7 million.

Meanwhile, in South Barrington and Barrington Hills, there seems to be an overabundance of homes selling for at least $1.5 million or more on the market. In another article, Chicago Real Estate Daily reported that as of the beginning of March, 79 residences fit into this category.

With the excessive stockpile of homes on the market Baird & Warner Inc. predicted that based on the previous sales activity they have just below 10 years worth of homes on the market.

Despite these figures, 20 more homes have been put on the market in the past few months in these Barrington areas.