Chicagoland homebuyers are facing increasingly tough competition as the amount of time homes spend on the market continues to shrink, according to a new report from the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®. The monthly report notes that the average number of days spent on the market for suburban detached homes shrank 22.9% in March, year over year, to 54 days, while attached homes stayed on the market an average of 40 days — decreasing 37.5%.

Median sales prices are also increasing for both detached and attached homes, having grown 5.2% and 13.5%, respectively, year over year.

“Prospective homebuyers are seeing increasing home prices and mortgage rates and have one-third less of the time to act on a home than they did this time last year,” Mainstreet President President John LeTourneau said in the press release.

“The work-from-home environment meant many people bought homes further away from the office or even in a different state,” added Mainstreet CEO John Gormley. “Now, employees are getting called back into the office, and it’s once again shifting homeowners’ outlook on where they need to live.”

The speed at which homes across the Chicagoland suburbs are selling is visualized below. (You can also view the data interactively here.) In particular, the following areas saw the sharpest decreases in days on the market: Buffalo Grove (an 83.1% decrease), Mount Prospect (73%), Oak Brook (68.7%), Addison (67.8%), South Holland (61.1%), Burr Ridge (53.9%), West Chicago (53.2%), Sycamore (52%), LaGrange (51.1%), Bridgeview (48.8%), Palatine (44.6%) and Wheeling (41.3%).

via Mainstreet

“The market is not going to get any easier this summer, so homebuyers need to consider if that summer vacation is going to help their chances of landing a home in this tight market,” LeTourneau warned.