Both detached and attached suburban home prices rose during 2023, 3.2% and 10%, respectively, year over year, according to annual data from the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®.

Coupled with rising mortgage rates and low inventory, Mainstreet President Tim Ryan called last year “a perfect storm for many Illinois buyers.”

In turn, home sales fell. Across the Chicago suburbs, throughout 2023, detached home sales fell by 19.3% while attached home sales fell by 21.9%.

The suburbs which saw the steepest year-over-year drop in detached home sales were, in order: Inverness (down 45.2%), Justice (down 43.3%), Flossmoor (down 41.9%), Hinsdale (down 40.3%), Palos Park (down 38.2%), Beach Park (down 38.1%), Stone Park (down 37.5%), Chicago Ridge (down 37.3%), Addison (down 36.4%), Orland Hills (down 35.7%), Oak Forest (down 35.2%), Wheaton (down 36.1%), Wadsworth-Old Mill Creek (down 30.5%), Tinley Park (down 23.4%), Villa Park (down 23.1%), Zion (down 20.8%), Des Plaines and Hoffman Estates (both down 20.4%) and Woodridge (down 18.3%).

In December 2023, specifically, though, the number of detached suburban homes under contract rose for the first time all year, by 3.9%.

“As the snow starts melting, tax returns start to come back and people start looking for places to live, we’re going to have a little bit of increased inventory,” Ryan said of the new data. “We’re hopeful that 2024 will be a year of housing recovery, and Illinois buyers have reason to be optimistic.”