Eight-Figure Listings Rise in Chicago

Being from the Chicago area and growing up there, I had to share the exciting homes listed in the place I love so much.

Summer 2024 was a record-breaking season for luxury residential real estate in Chicagoland, with more than a dozen eight-figure listings hitting the market.

In the span of just a few weeks, eight homes were listed by @properties Christie’s International Real Estate alone: five North Shore estates ranging in price from $10.7 million to $35 million and three downtown Chicago condominiums priced between $10.8 million and $11.7 million.

This unprecedented wave of multimillion-dollar listings might have come as a surprise to some industry insiders and casual observers, but luxury specialists like Jena Radnay, a broker at @properties and member of the Christie’s International Real Estate Masters Circle, say it’s part of the natural ebb and flow of the market. Radnay sold two of last year’s eight-figure homes—both above $12 million—and is the listing agent for the Windsor House, a $35 million lakefront estate in the leafy North Shore community of Winnetka.

“While the luxury market on the North Shore has been strong for the past few years, the fact that these homes are coming up for sale today says more about this group of sellers and where they are in their lives than it does about current conditions,” she noted.

Fellow @properties brokers Sharon Friedman and Courtney Cook agree. Their $18 million co-listing (just up the shore from the Windsor House, Radney’s listing) went on the market in September.

“Twenty years ago, we were pre-Great Recession,” Friedman said. “Money was flowing, and a lot of people bought big expensive homes. Now, the kids are grown, and these homeowners don’t need or want 15,000 square feet. They’re ready to move on.”

Carrie McCormick, a top broker at @properties’ East Lincoln Park branch, has two of the three new $10 million-plus listings in the city. She noted that for every seller of these trophy homes, there’s ultimately a buyer, which challenges the notion that the latest wave of eight-figure listings is the result of a downturn in the Chicago market.

What brings high-net-worth buyers to Chicago? McCormick cites the lakefront lifestyle, rich culture, and dynamic business climate, and that Chicago real estate still offers great value relative to other U.S. markets—even at $10 million, $20 million, or $30 million.

Take Manhattan, where a Fifth Avenue penthouse sold for $135 million—unfinished!—and the ultra-prime markets of Palm Beach, Florida, and Malibu, California, where two waterfront mansions sold for $152 million and $210 million, respectively.

There’s another indication of the value in Chicagoland’s ultra-luxury sector: None of these eight-figure homes could be rebuilt today for what their owners are asking.

“For someone to recreate what my client has at 419 Sheridan Avenue, it would be double the acquisition cost,” Radnay said of her $35 million Winnetka listing, which, in addition to the 13,894-square-foot mansion, boasts a coach house, an entertainment pavilion, a pool, botanical gardens, a 10-car motor court, boathouse, and a private beach on Lake Michigan. If it fetches the list price or thereabouts, the 2.3-acre property will set a record on the North Shore.

McCormick reported $14 million to $16 million as the cost to replicate the Penthouse at 4 East Elm Street in downtown Chicago. The fully customized, 5,400-square-foot, four-bedroom residence recently underwent a two-year build-out. It’s currently listed at $10.8 million.

“In this price range, the home often finds the buyer,” added Courtney Cook. “It’s not like these buyers are thinking, ‘I want to spend about $18 million.’ They want what they want, and if a home speaks to them, they certainly have the means to step up and buy it.”

Who is buying on Chicago’s North Shore?

“What I’m seeing are homebuyers who love Chicago, who have local or Midwestern roots, often going back generations,” said Radnay. “They’re ambassadors for Chicago, and they want to live here forever.”

Explore @properties’ eight-figure club in Chicagoland.