Chicago-area home prices continue to climb, with 24% spike in Gary and 19% spike in Zion

Rush for real estate throughout the Chicago area

Thad Wong, co-founder and co-CEO of @Properties discusses the real estate market and explains why it is a seller's market.

CHICAGO - Chicago-area home prices are continuing to climb higher as more people adopt permanent work-from-home and hybrid work hours, and mortgage rates remain low.

This Chicago and suburban real estate data from Zillow shows the seasonally adjusted average value of "middle tier" homes in various Chicago suburbs for June 2021 and the percentage increase over June 2020:

Gary: $53,922, up 24.5%
Zion: $158,306, up 19.5%
Highland Park: $555,338, up 15.2%
Crystal Lake: $275,722, up 14.7%
Aurora: $219,094, up 13.2%
Tinley Park: $268,271, up 11.9%
Naperville: $435,491, up 10.7%
Chicago: $296,603, up 10.1%

In 2020, people who moved went to areas where houses were tens of thousands of dollars cheaper and 33-square feet larger on average, according to United Van Lines data analyzed by Zillow.

The top five metro areas where people fled from were Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. On the other hand, the top five markets where people moved in were Phoenix, Charlotte, Austin, Dallas, and Sarasota, Fla.