Lake Forest is a tough town to shake from the top of suburban Chicago’s real estate market.
The North Shore suburb notched the priciest home sale in the five collar counties surrounding Cook County in both April and March, with Compass agents Leslie Dhamer and Heidi Ogden bagging the biggest deal so far in the spring market.
Dhamer and Ogden were the listing agents of an 11,000-square-foot mansion that was built in 1930 on 7 acres at 1400 North Waukegan Road and sold for nearly $3.9 million in March.
That was a bit pricier — and a lot older — than April’s biggest collar county sale of a 16-year-old home at 172 West Laurel Avenue in Lake Forest.
The 6,500-square-foot, six-bedroom and eight-bathroom home sold for $3.6 million, and was listed with Coldwell Banker Realty’s Houda Chedid, who’s one of the most prominent dealmakers for the top of Lake Forest’s luxury residential market. The buyer’s agent was Dinny Dwyer.
During both March and April, DuPage County homes came the closest to knocking Lake Forest off the top spot. In March, a $2.9 million sale of a home at 318 South Lincoln Street in Hinsdale was the second priciest home in the area. And last month, second place went to a 9,100-square-foot home on 2.5 acres along Indian Knoll Road in West Chicago that sold for $3 million.
Overall, home sales volume in DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will counties approached $1.5 billion in April across 2,914 deals. The former figure was up from March, when sales totaled $1.11 billion, even as last month’s deal volume fell shy of March’s 2,976 deals.
This was partly due to Chicagoland’s relatively stronger resistance to falling home prices being on display. Depreciation from pandemic-era pricing peaks is lagging behind other metro markets, especially in the West.
In fact, the median asking price for Chicago-area homes topped a new record-high when it reached $333,500 as of late March, even as the number of transactions slowed since last summer.
Collar County Home Sales Stats
APRIL SALES
Most Expensive
Lake Forest, 172 W Laurel Ave Lake Forest | Price $3,600,000 | $551 psf | Year built: 2007
Least Expensive
Crete, 547 W Stanton Ln Crete | Price $46,600 | $45 psf | Year built: 1966
Highest Price Per Square Foot
Lake Forest, 172 W Laurel Ave Lake Forest | Price $3,600,000 | $551 psf | Year built: 2007
Lowest Price Per Square Foot
Old Mill Creek / Wadsworth, 14700 W Kazmer Rd Wadsworth | Price $350,000 | $8 psf | Year built: 1981
Newest
Westleigh Farm, 185 S Orchard Cir Lake Forest | Price $1,900,000 | $375 psf | Year built: 2023
Oldest
Glen Ellyn, 367 Duane St Glen Ellyn | Price $265,000 | $144 psf | Year built: 1856
MARCH SALES
Most Expensive
Lake Forest, 1400 N Waukegan Rd Lake Forest | Price $3,875,480 | $354 psf | Year built: 1930
Least Expensive
Holiday Hills / Johnsburg / McHenry / Lakemoor / McCullom Lake / Sunnyside / Ringwood, 70 Port Side Lakemoor | Price $40,000 | $nan psf | Year built: N/A
Highest Price Per Square Foot
Westleigh Farm, 35 S Orchard Cir Lake Forest | Price $1,640,000 | $565 psf | Year built: 2022
Lowest Price Per Square Foot
Zion, 2605 Elizabeth Ave Zion | Price $74,000 | $31 psf | Year built: 1906
Newest
Hinsdale, 318 S Lincoln St Hinsdale | Price $2,899,000 | $N/A psf | Year built: 2023
Oldest
Barrington Area, 74 Meadow Hill Rd Barrington Hills | Price $509,000 | $243 psf | Year built: 1842