Real estate report: Chicago a rare balanced market

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:44:23 -0500

In most of the country's largest cities, home buyers have a clear advantage over sellers.

But that's not the case in Chicago.

According to a real estate report released by Redfin, Chicago has a balanced market.

Chicago one of 4 balanced markets

In Chicago, there are nearly as many people looking to buy a home as there are people looking to offload their real estate.

According to Redfin, there are 6.5% more sellers than buyers.

Chicago is one of only four balanced markets in the nation's top 50 most populous metropolitan areas.

Balanced markets can also be found in Boston, Massachusetts; New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Providence, Rhode Island.

At a national level, home sellers outnumber buyers by 63%.

That's the largest gap since the housing market crashed after the 2008 financial crisis, and it means most of the nation's largest cities are buyer's markets.

Many of the most robust buyer's markets are in the Sun Belt, where builders are adding new units to the housing stock.

In Miami, sellers exceed buyers by 158.9%. That's the highest in the country.

Nashville follows with a 152.3% surplus of sellers.

According to Redfin, only five of the top 50 most populous metro areas are seller's markets.

Officials at Redfin say that high housing costs are pushing buyers out of the market.

"This is a buyer’s market born out of caution, not strength," said Asad Khan, a senior economist at Redfin. "Buyers have tremendous negotiating power in most of the country because so many other would-be buyers have been priced out of the market, or scared off by economic uncertainty. For house hunters who have the budget and job security to purchase a home in today’s market, that creates a unique opportunity: They can be picky, negotiate and even walk away if the deal doesn’t make sense financially or they find something they like better."

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Real estate report: Chicago a rare balanced market

Chicago one of 4 balanced markets