Pent up demand and lower interest rates expected to propel Chicago’s real estate market into a strong 2025

It’s been a challenging few years for home buyers in the Second City. Echoing activity in many markets around the U.S., high interest rates, a lack of inventory and rising home prices have left many would-be Chicago-area home buyers on the sidelines. The problem has only been exacerbated by potential sellers who have been reluctant to walk away from their low-interest-rate mortgages.

But in recent months, Chicago’s real estate market has seen an uptick in activity. Home prices have been steadily climbing in the city and suburbs, but lower mortgage rates have helped affordability. The volume of transactions is on the rise from recent historic lows, and in the upper end of the market, the region has seen a raft of new multi-million-dollar home sales and ultra-luxe listings.

Read on for a deep dive into the latest headlines and trends in the Chicago real estate market with several of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate’s managing brokers.

If you’ve been thinking about jumping into the Chicago condominium market for a while, now might be the perfect time to start looking. Mortgage interest rates have fallen significantly over the past year, and while city condos are selling quickly – with an average market time of about one month for sold units, year to date – there’s solid inventory in many Chicago neighborhoods. This offers a promising environment for savvy buyers.

Of course, condo buyers are a heterogenous lot. Fortunately, so are Chicago condominiums. If you’re dreaming of condo living but aren’t sure which direction to go, here are five Chicago condo personas and available options to meet the needs of each.

It’s officially fall, so you can be forgiven for thinking your landscaping work is all over but for the leaf-blowing. However, the truth of the matter is that it’s time to take a deeper look at your lawn and garden – underground, in fact.

“Plants aren’t getting larger right now,” says Jennifer Brennan, a horticulturist with Chalet, a nursery and garden center in Wilmette that has been serving the North Shore for more than 100 years. In the fall, all the energy expended by plants “goes into the root development. It’s a metabolic process.”

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, plants begin preparing for winter, Brennan said. The temperate or warm daytime temperatures combined with the cooler night air makes September and October the ideal times to do your planting and landscaping work.

So, what should be on your fall to-do list? We asked Chicago-area landscaping experts, and here are their top 10 recommendations.