As suburban inventory remains low, detached and attached homes are moving at different paces, according to new data from the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®.

In October 2022, the time on market for detached homes in the Chicago suburbs rose 20% to 42. Meanwhile, for attached homes, the time on the market decreased 3% year over year, to 32 days. “Buyers can be a bit more selective, and the homes that are in great shape – those that are well cared for, priced correctly or updated thoughtfully – are still going very quickly,” Mainstreet President Debbie Pawlowicz said in a press release, reflecting on the data.

However, sales declined for both types of houses. The number of detached homes fell by 38.1% year over year while the number of attached homes sold dropped 26.2%.

In turn, the number of homes under contract took a large dip. The areas which saw the most extreme decreases year over year were, in order: Lisle (down 71.4%), Bartlett (down 64.2%), Park Ridge (down 62.5%), Mundelein (down 56.9%), Lake Villa – Lindenhurst (down 57.4%), Flossmoor (down 56.5%), Downers Grove (down 56.0%), Hanover Park (down 54.8%), Vernon Hills (54.6%), Elmhurst (down 49.2%), Arlington Heights (down 48.7%), Rolling Meadows (down 48.3%), Oswego (down 48.0%), Midlothian (down 46.9%), Glen Ellyn (down 41.9%), Naperville (down 40.9%) and Buffalo Grove and Niles (both down 40%).

“We are seeing a market that is responding to higher interest rates and low inventory – it is balancing out,” Pawlowicz said. Despite that slowdown, prices continued to rise. The average median sales price for detached suburban homes was $325,000 in October 2022: up 3.2%. The average median sales price for an attached homes increased 7.5% to $215,000.

“Buyers now have more room to negotiate sale prices, so even though interest rates are higher, monthly payments may end up coming out to about the same or less than they were just a few months ago,” Mainstreet CEO John Gormley concluded.