Northwest Suburbs
WHEELING
Wheeling is located at the border of Cook and Lake Counties, with I-294 marking its eastern boundary and the suburbs of Arlington Heights, Northbrook and Buffalo Grove close by. The village of approximately 37,600 people offers an affordable alternative to some of Chicagoland’s more expensive northwest suburbs. Many homebuyers are drawn by median sales prices in the $195,000 range, according to Redfin.
Luigui Corral, Realtor and broker/owner with RE/MAX United, sees many young families and first-time buyers moving into the area, particularly people who have been priced out of the market in other nearby suburbs but want to remain in the area.
“What happens is that we are right on the border of Cook County and Lake County, and the Lake County taxes are extremely high,” Corral says. “Wheeling is still kind of affordable for families. I’ve seen the growth in some of the families in Northbrook or Buffalo Grove. They want to be close to their families and maybe one day form their own families, but they can’t afford homes there. Wheeling has been a good opportunity for them.”
Many of the homes in the village are older, ranch-style residences, though there are some condos and townhomes. There hasn’t been a great deal of new development in the suburb, and Corral expects the existing housing stock to continue to perform well.
“It’s continuing to grow because there’s no space for new construction here,” Corral says. “I think it will slow down a little bit and stabilize when the interest rates go up, but Wheeling is still going to stay very competitive because the prices are not going to be as high as in other areas close by. We still have some inventory, but as the demand has increased, the inventory has decreased tremendously.”
Wheeling By the Numbers
- 26.0% in median sales price ($158,730 to $200,000)
- 2.4% change in new listings
- 31.7% change in closed sales
- -17.5% change in inventory of homes
Source: Redfin
BUFFALO GROVE
Sprawling across Cook and Lake counties, Buffalo Grove has been recognized as one of the best places to live in the U.S. by Niche.com. According to the website’s metrics, the village ranks seventh nationally and first in Illinois based on factors such as cost of living, crime rate and the quality of the village’s public schools. In addition to good schools and a low crime rate, Buffalo Grove is situated along Metra’s North Central Service Line, which offers weekday commuters transportation to Chicago’s Union Station.
The village of approximately 41,600 residents is a hot market for sellers. Single-family homes were on the market an average of just 34 days in June, compared to 71 days in June 2016, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors. Redfin found similar indicators of a hot seller’s market, including just two months of inventory and a median sale price of just over $291,000.