CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM I MAY 20, 2024
Midwestern cities are killing it in home price growth
Brandon Johnson
On a list of areas with the fastest-rising prices, six are located in Illinois or Wisconsin
Mayor Johnson touts his pro-biz bona fides
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By Dennis Rodkin
‘Find another administration that has done more for business in their first year than me’ | By Justin Lawrence
C
hicago Mayor Brandon Johnson traveled to Springfield in the final weeks of the spring legislative session with a list of requests emblematic of his rocky first year in office. Beyond Johnson’s public call for the state to find $1 billion to fully fund Chicago Public Schools and $900 million in bond funding for a new stadium for the Chicago Bears, the mayor asked for in-
creased funds to replace lead service lines, an increase in state tax revenue shared with the city and a tweak to a telecommunications tax to provide the city more revenue. Just as important is what Johnson didn’t demand: significant changes to state tax law to allow See JOHNSON on Page 62
The story is the same, although the details differ, in a half-dozen small Midwestern cities. A house in Fond du Lac, Wis., sold swiftly and closed at $10,000 over its asking price. In Racine, a house went on the market on a Friday, got a fullprice offer, and was under contract to a buyer by Sunday. In Champaign, a seller boosted her asking price by $25,000 just before her house went on the market and still got a full-price offer the first day. Home prices are rising so fast in those and three other small cities in Illinois and Wisconsin that this swath of the Midwest dominated the National Association of Realtors’ May 8 report on U.S. home price increases during the first quarter of the year. In a three-month period when the median price of homes sold nationwide was up 5% from a year earlier, prices in Fond du Lac were up 23.7%, the highest in the country, according to the NAR report. “Yes, that’s really what’s happening here,” said Jenelle Bruno, an agent with First Weber Realtors in Fond du Lac and a director of the Realtors Association of Northeast Wisconsin.
“We’re seeing significant price increases.” The other five Midwestern cities in the top 10 were No. 2 Kankakee, where prices are up 22%; No. 3 Rockford, 20.1%; No. 4 Champaign-Urbana, 20.0%; No. 6 Racine, 19.0%; and No. 8 Bloomington, 18.5%. Cities in Tennessee, New York, New Jersey and Maryland filled out the rest of the top 10.
The small cities’ affordability is fueling price growth, several agents said. Prices in those cities are rising at more than twice the speed of Chicago. The median price of Chicago-area homes sold during the quarter was up 8.8%, according to the same report. The NAR’s quarterly report comes on the heels of a similar one this month from Realtor. com and The Wall Street Journal on the top U.S. metros house hunters should check out. Small Midwestern cities dominated that list, too, with 10 of the 20 slots. Rockford led the list, which also spotlighted Ann See HOME PRICES on Page 63
2024
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