It’s been a tale of two housing markets in the Chicago area of late. “Under $1 million, especially for first-time buyers, the market has been on fire. More than likely, you’re going to have to pay over asking,” says Eugene Fu, an agent with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. But at the upper end, $2 million and above, purchasers are finding more leverage: “That market is softer. Those buyers generally have more choices and room to negotiate.”
The biggest driver of this dichotomy? Millennials looking for starter homes. “In any of the neighborhoods that cater to them, we expect really intense competition for a property,” says Fu. “But homes around Michigan Avenue that are historically targeted toward empty nesters — those people aren’t buying in Chicago right now. They’re going straight to Florida or Arizona.”
Overall in the area, sales are down, with annual figures dropping 36 percent from 2021 to 2024. Tight inventory continues to be a drag on the market, as potential sellers are reluctant to give up their historically low interest rates. But the competition for what homes are available has prices climbing, with the median up 8 percent last year. This has been a commission lifeline for real estate agents, whose sales dollars are creeping back up. In our latest rankings of individual agents, it took more than $24 million in annual residential sales to crack the top 100; last year, the threshold was just under $20 million. For agent teams, the cutoff rose from a little over $39 million to just above $41 million.
Leading the individual agent rankings, Carrie McCormick of @properties Christie’s generated nearly $200 million in 2024 residential sales in the six-county area. It helped that she had one penthouse deal at the St. Regis that alone accounted for $7 million. On the team side, Coldwell Banker’s Dawn McKenna Group ranks first, at nearly $300 million.
The new rankings: