Market Updates

Spring market update: what buyers and sellers should expect.

A grounded look at inventory, rates and pricing across our primary markets — without the hype you'll read on national portals.

By Rumi Velinova, REALTOR® · RE/MAX At Home · Published March 2025 · Last updated March 2025

The three numbers that matter

Inventory, rates and days on market.

Headlines describe a national market that nobody lives in. Here is how the northwest suburbs are actually behaving, and what I tell clients on both sides of the table.

Inventory stays tight

Owners holding low fixed rates still hesitate to list, so well-prepared homes in strong school pockets remain scarce. Scarcity, not enthusiasm, is what drives most of the competition you'll feel.

Rates set the pace

Every movement in mortgage rates changes the size of the buyer pool within weeks. When rates dip, showings spike first and prices follow later — timing a listing to that window matters more than shaving a commission point.

Two speeds at once

Updated, correctly priced homes go under contract quickly. Dated or overpriced homes sit, then reduce. There is no single market number that describes both.

If you're buying

Compete on terms, not just price.

Get fully underwritten, not merely pre-qualified. In a multiple-offer situation an underwritten approval is often worth more to a seller than another few thousand dollars.

Do not waive an inspection to win. On 1960s and 1970s housing stock, sewer lines, tanks and original electrical panels are the findings that cost real money later.

Understand the tax reset. If a home last sold years ago, your bill may not resemble the seller's — I model that before you set your maximum.

Watch homes that have been listed thirty days or more. That is where the real negotiating room lives this spring, and many of them only need cosmetic work.

Be ready to see a home the day it lists. The strongest listings in Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Palatine rarely survive a first weekend.

Rates change; the house does not. Buy the home and the street you want, and refinance later if the market gives you the chance.

If you're selling

Preparation still beats pricing optimism.

Price to the first ten days

Your listing gets one wave of genuine attention. Price at the market rather than above it and you invite the competition that actually lifts the final number.

Fix the cheap things

Paint, lighting, hardware, landscaping and a deep clean return more than any renovation you can complete before spring. Buyers price uncertainty harshly.