For years, the housing shortage in DuPage County and the surrounding western suburbs of Chicago has had a straightforward explanation: homeowners locked into mortgage rates of 2% or 3% have little financial reason to sell. But a different source of supply is now filling part of that gap: older homeowners who are downsizing, moving into long-term care, or passing away, leaving properties that adult children living out of state need to sell. These are not discretionary listings. They are driven by life events that do not wait for favorable market conditions.
According to Michael Berg, a former licensed appraiser who has worked the western suburbs for 22 years, these sellers now make up a growing share of his business. “A lot of older folks are getting to that age where they can’t do the stairs anymore, or they’re passing,” he says. “That’s where we’re seeing a lot of the inventory starting to pick up.”
Until this year, prices across the western suburbs were rising 5% to 15% annually. That broad upward trend has fractured. Individual towns are now moving at different speeds, driven largely by affordability thresholds and school district boundaries.
Naperville remains one of the strongest performers, drawing buyers who want urban amenities outside of Chicago. But even Naperville has slowed from its recent pace. Meanwhile, Lisle, a neighboring town where parts of the community feed into Naperville schools, has gotten hotter because it still has affordable housing. Higher-end markets like Hinsdale, the most expensive western suburb, are seeing longer days on market. Berg says upper-price-point homes are taking longer to sell across the area.
School districts are a major driver of this sorting. “A lot of people really like the Hinsdale Central school district, but they don’t know that there’s actually six different towns that go to Hinsdale Central,” Berg says. “Sometimes you can still get in a good school district without paying the premium of the Hinsdale home price.”
As some towns price out their buyer pools, Berg says demand spills into adjacent communities that offer similar schools or infrastructure at lower entry costs.
The most common mistake Berg encounters is overpricing: sellers who anchor expectations to peak-market conditions and assume aggressive pricing will still attract offers. In practice, it backfires. Buyers who see an overpriced home do not negotiate down; they wait. And while they wait, a better-priced competitor comes on the market and captures the sale.
“If you’re an overpriced home in a neighborhood, your home is helping all the other homes sell because they’re comparing your house to the other houses and you’re making the other houses look like better deals,” Berg says.
Two years ago, he had a listing that received 40 offers in two days. That era is over. Multiple-offer situations still occur, but now involve two or three bids rather than dozens. Homes that once sold in days now take two to four weeks. Sellers checking Zillow estimates or hearing anecdotes about neighbors selling quickly are often working from outdated assumptions.
Berg says his appraisal background helps in these conversations, but showing often works better than telling. When a seller insists on a higher price, he suggests visiting a comparable home on the market. “Why don’t we go look at that house and see where they’re priced at? And then you tell me whether you still think your house should be priced that much more over theirs,” he says. Physically seeing a competing property often changes a seller’s mind faster than any pricing analysis.
On the demand side, buyer burnout is becoming a visible factor. Some buyers who started searching in early spring have been outbid repeatedly and are now stepping back, choosing to wait until next year. Berg says rate sensitivity has also intensified; even a quarter-point move now pushes some buyers to the sidelines, a change from a year or two ago when similar fluctuations drew little reaction.
For buyers still competing, Berg describes several tools that are now standard in multiple-offer situations: escalation clauses that automatically bid a set amount above the next highest offer up to a defined ceiling, as-is offers that waive the right to request repairs after inspection, and appraisal gap waivers that commit the buyer to paying above the appraised value. Non-price terms can also win deals. Berg once secured a contract by offering a 30-day close with a 60-day rent-back, giving sellers time to find their next home. “They chose our bid even though we weren’t the highest bid out of all the offers,” he says.
A longer-term shift is reshaping what sells and what sits. When Berg started in the business 22 years ago, first-time buyers routinely sought fixer-uppers, bought them at a discount, and renovated over time. That buyer has largely disappeared. Today’s purchasers, especially first-time buyers, want homes that are already finished.
This preference has created an opening for investors, who buy distressed properties, renovate them with established crews, and resell at a premium. Berg says he has watched buyers who claimed to want a fixer-upper tour 25 of them, then immediately choose the one already-flipped home with a new kitchen. “As soon as you walk into that one house that’s already been flipped and is nice, they’re like, oh no, you know what, we’ll just take this house,” he says.
The dynamic is reinforced by a shortage of skilled tradespeople. Berg says good contractors are booked three to five months out and often quote high prices to discourage work they do not have capacity for. “A lot of these guys are older; they’re retiring. There’s not a lot of tradesmen entering the field,” he says. For buyers willing to take on a property that needs work, the reward is a lower purchase price, but the challenge is finding someone to do the renovation at a reasonable cost and timeline.
Berg says the early-buyer trend of recent years, purchasers entering the market as soon as January or February, will be a key signal for 2026. That pattern has held for roughly five years. If it breaks, he sees it as a sign of a broader return to a more balanced market. “When I say slowing down, I mean going back to normal,” he says. “I don’t see the market dropping or anything like that.”
About the Expert: Michael Berg is a former licensed appraiser who has worked in the western suburbs of Chicago for 22 years.
This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.
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