We recently reported on the percentage of homes locally that are selling above asking price. Local Realtor Scott Berg has seen this in his practice and decided to do a little market research of his own. What he found surprised him and points to Oak Park being an interesting anomaly.
Berg notes his research was prompted by his close family ties with others in the real estate industry, particularly his cousin in Willowbrook. Berg says, “We talk five times a day, and he’s telling me stories of what’s happening in that area. It did feel like Oak Park is tighter than they are.”
Those casual observations led Berg to pull 12-month MRED (Midwest Real Estate Data) data comparing Oak Park to five other western suburbs: Wheaton, Elmhurst, Downers Grove, Naperville and Hinsdale.
He wasn’t expecting the results. Oak Park posted the largest year-over-year tightening of any of the six other suburbs. In Oak Park, there is a 1.2-month supply of homes on the market, down from 1.4 in April 2025.
In addition, Oak Park, along with Wheaton, is one of only two suburbs where the average home sold above its original list price over the past year. Oak Park is also the most affordable median in the comparison group at $430,000 for a single-family home.
In the analysis on his website, Berg wrote, “Tight markets often produce sharp price appreciation. Oak Park’s did not — at least not in the way the headline suggests. The median sale price held steady at $430,000, unchanged from the prior 12-month period. By contrast, Elmhurst’s median rose 13.1%, Wheaton’s climbed 6.2%, and Downers Grove gained 3.3%.”
Another stat that stood out: Oak Park active listings of single-family homes are down 15% year-over-year, while Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Naperville and Hinsdale all saw their inventory increase in 2026.
Berg says, “The western suburb market isn’t moving in one direction anymore; it has split, and Oak Park is firmly in the tightening camp.”
According to Berg, for buyers, all of this means that “Oak Park remains the most accessible entry point into the in-demand inner western suburbs.”
In his analysis, Berg sees several factors at play in Oak Park’s statistics. He sees the lower median Oak Park single-family home price as a reflection of Oak Park’s unique make-up. “Oak Park is laid out more like a north side neighborhood than suburbs like Wheaton. Our lots are a lot smaller. To a certain extent, that’s where the affordability comes from,” he says.
In terms of the tightening market, he notes that during the Covid-era boom in housing prices and sales, Oak Park didn’t do as well as far out suburbs like Naperville and Downers Grove. When people could work remotely all of the time, they were happy to move far away from the city to get more land and more house.
Now, with workers going back into the office at least a few days a week, close-in suburbs with shorter commutes are highly appealing while demand for far away suburbs might have tapered off.
The tightening market could also be due in part to the changing face of who is buying and who is selling locally.
Berg says, “One part of the local market that’s almost completely gone is the upgrade buyer.” He points out that people might be able to sell their home that they purchased for $400,000 for $800,000, but they also trade a 2% interest rate for a 6% interest rate on a more expensive home. “People can’t wrap their heads around it,” he says.
Older homeowners are more likely to stay put as well. Berg says some of that stems from Covid-era restrictions leaving their mark. Today, seniors and empty nesters are more likely seeking space and access to a yard that they can’t get “living in a box.”
In his practice, Berg is seeing more and more grandparents want to stay in or move into Oak Park to be near their grandkids. “They still want space. They might have an adult kid who wants to stay with them for a while.”
He says smaller but still good-sized homes are hard for this demographic to find locally. In the past 12 months, zero four-bedroom ranch homes sold in Oak Park, and one sold in River Forest. More bungalows hit the market, but they might be too small for many in this group.
Berg says, “The problem is, people who are downsizing from a family-size home, they still want space. People in their 70s want a ranch house, but all of the developers and flippers are looking to pop a top on them to create more living space and make more money.”
While recognizing that it’s not easy to downsize in Oak Park, Berg isn’t sure that initiatives like Governor JB Pritzker’s BUILD Act will solve the problem. “It might make it more crowded here and it will bring more people to the schools, but that will just raise our homeownership costs in the end,” he says, noting that the schools are the largest driver of local property taxes.
He’s not sure there’s a natural end in sight to the tight market that will make people happy. “I don’t think we’re getting out of this until interest rates fall. The other way out is a recession, which no one wants.”