Near North Side By The Numbers: Prices, Buyers, Permits

More condominiums sold on the Near North Side in 2025 than in any other Chicago community area, 1,836 of the 1,926 home sales there. Their median price was $375,000, up 25 percent from 2019. Companies bought 8.6 percent of the homes sold in 2024–25, down from 21.6 percent in 2018–19, the second-largest drop of the 75 areas measured, after the Loop.

Drawn from our analyses of county and city records · sales file as updated September 15, 2026 · assembled October 1, 2026

The Near North Side in the recordsfigure

Median house sale, 2025$955,000 in 2019. 86 sales in 2025.$1.3M
Median condominium sale, 2025$300,000 in 2019. 1,836 sales in 2025.$375K
Market signals activeOf four that could be measured.0 of 4
Homes bought by companies, 2024–2521.6 percent in 2018–19.8.6%
Bought 2018–22 and resold within two years405 of 10,279 purchases.3.9%
Assessor valuation as a share of sale price90 sales in 2025. 93 percent with resales set aside.93%
Two-to-six-flats on the tax rolls, 2026275 in 2006.192

What homes sold for

The county recorded sales of 86 houses, four two-to-six-flats and 1,836 condominiums in the Near North Side in 2025. The median house sold for $955,000 in 2019 and $1,327,500 in 2025, up 39 percent, 46th among the 70 community areas with 20 or more house sales in both years. Citywide the median house went from $230,000 to $320,000, up 39 percent. The median condominium went from $300,000 to $375,000, up 25 percent, 29th among the 37 community areas with 20 or more condominium sales in both years; citywide the rise was 26 percent. Too few two-to-six-flats sold in one of the two years for a median.

Every area and year, and the rules for which sales are counted: What a Chicago Home Actually Sold For: 245,849 Deeds Since 2018, All 77 Community Areas

None of the four market signals that could be measured is active, and one could not be measured

Our gentrification-signals analysis checks five records in every community area for unusually fast change between 2018–19 and 2024–25: house prices, two-to-six-flat prices, the share of homes bought by companies, new-construction permits and new business licenses. In the Near North Side, four of the five could be measured and none of those is active. Of the 67 areas scored, three show four signals and 40 show none. A signal is a measurement of change between two periods. It does not describe the people who live in an area or say what happens next.

The five signals in the Near North Sideactive

House pricesCounts only where the 2019 median house price was below the citywide $230,000. Here it was $955,000.no
Two-to-six-flat pricesFewer than 20 sales of two-to-six-flats in 2019 or in 2025, too few to measure.n/a
Company buyersCompanies bought 21.6 percent of homes sold in 2018–19 and 8.6 percent in 2024–25, down 13.0 points. The bar is a rise of five points.no
New-construction permitsPermits numbered 181 in 2018–19 and 110 in 2024–25. The bar is 1.5 times the earlier count, with at least eight in the later period.no
New business licensesFirst-time licenses numbered 521 in 2019 and 444 in 2025, down 15 percent. The bar is 15 percent growth, with at least 30 in 2025.no

Did the company share fall across the whole city? Barely: it was 14.6 percent in 2018–19 and 14.2 percent in 2024–25. On the Near North Side the fall was concentrated in one kind of purchase: units bought by a company that took five or more in the same building, 610 in 2018–19 and 17 in 2024–25. Outside those, companies bought 301 homes here in the first period and 308 in the second. Our reading: building-by-building buying fell by 97 percent here, and companies buying a home at a time bought about as many as before. The four largest drops in the city, here and in the Loop, Edgewater and Uptown, trace to the same kind of purchase.

Every area scored, with the thresholds: Where Chicago’s Gentrification Signals Are Active: East Garfield Park, New City and North Lawndale Show Four of Five. Logan Square, Avondale and the Lower West Side Show None.

Who bought

Companies bought 8.6 percent of the 3,758 homes sold in the Near North Side in 2024 and 2025, and 21.6 percent of those sold in 2018 and 2019. Citywide the share was 14.2 percent in the later period. A buyer counts as a company when its name on the deed carries a marker such as LLC, Inc. or Corp.; trustees of land trusts are counted as trusts. Of those company purchases, 17 in 2024 and 2025 and 610 in 2018 and 2019 were units of a building in which the same company bought five or more. Seven condominium buildings in the Near North Side, each bought in bulk since 2018, no longer appear on the tax rolls as condominiums. The parcel nearest each is now classed as an apartment building or a two-to-six-flat, the pattern a deconversion leaves in the records. Of the 10,279 homes bought here from 2018 through 2022, 405 were sold again by their buyer within two years, 3.9 percent. The citywide rate is 7.1 percent.

The buyer names on the deeds, and the resales, are counted here: Who Is Buying Chicago? The Buyer’s Name on 245,849 Deeds: Companies Bought 13 Percent of Homes and 46 Percent of Those Resold Within Two Years

Condominium buildings bought in bulk, and the rules for selling one whole: Chicago’s Condo Deconversion Pattern: 69 Buildings Bought in Bulk Since 2018 Left the Tax Rolls as Condominiums, the Nearest Parcels Now Classed as Apartment Buildings or Two-to-Six-Flats

Two-to-six-flats since 2006

The Assessor’s rolls counted 275 two-to-six-flat parcels in the Near North Side in 2006 and 192 in 2026. Over the twenty years 109 left the class, and the largest group of those, 54, are now classed as single-family houses. Another 26 parcels joined the class. Citywide the count fell from 127,818 to 119,943.

Every flat parcel of 2006, followed to 2026: Chicago’s Tax Rolls Show 7,875 Fewer Two-to-Six-Flats Than in 2006. Of the 13,049 Parcels That Left the Count, 6,208 Are Now Classed as Single-Family Houses.

Valuations, appeals and mortgages

The Assessor valued the 90 houses and two-to-six-flats sold in the Near North Side in 2025 at 93 percent of their sale prices, at the median, the highest of the 65 areas with a figure. Citywide the figure is 81 percent. Of those sales, three were of a home that had sold within the two years before. With those set aside the figure is 93 percent, against 83 percent citywide, and only East Garfield Park’s is higher. Owners of 37.6 of every 100 houses appealed their assessment to the Board of Review for tax year 2025, counting each house once, against 17.5 citywide, and 23 percent of those appeals won.

Valuations against sale prices, area by area: Chicago Houses and Two-to-Six-Flats Sold in 2025 Were Valued at 81 Percent of Their Sale Prices. Those Resold Within Two Years, at 60 Percent.

Appeals per 100 houses, mapped: Nearly Half of Lincoln Park’s Houses Appealed Their Property Tax Assessments. On the Southeast Side, About One in 24 Did.

Federal mortgage records show 1,580 home-purchase loans in the Near North Side in 2025, and the county file shows 1,926 sales. The two are separate systems with different coverage and do not match sale for sale. Of the loans, 165 were marked as not for the borrower’s own occupancy.

The lending records and their limits: At Least 1,532 Chicago Homes Sold for $100,000 or Less in 2025. Lenders Wrote 289 Mortgages That Size.

Permits and licenses

The city issued 25 new-construction permits in the Near North Side in the first half of 2025 and 22 in the first half of 2026. Citywide the counts were 666 and 698. Counted two years at a time, the area had 181 in 2018–19 and 110 in 2024–25. A permit is an approval to build and is not a finished building.

Every permit of the half-year, by area: Chicago Issued 698 New-Construction Permits in the First Half of 2026. Here’s Where They Went.

First-time business licenses numbered 521 in 2019 and 444 in 2025. Citywide they fell from 7,464 to 6,503. The file counts licenses issued and does not show whether a business opened or stayed open.

The citywide count: Chicago Licenses 1,000 Fewer New Businesses a Year Than Before the Pandemic. The Gap Is Downtown.

City services

For requests to 311 created from January 1, 2024 through June 15, 2026, the median time to close in the Near North Side was: graffiti removal, 0.7 days on 7,827 requests, against 0.7 days citywide; potholes, 3.0 days on 2,536 requests, against 5.8 days citywide; streetlight outages, 4.1 days on 1,517 requests, against 2.5 days citywide; abandoned vehicles, 16.9 days on 578 requests, against 11.6 days citywide; rodent complaints, 2.8 days on 1,120 requests, against 3.1 days citywide. A closed request is the city’s record that it closed the request. It does not confirm the repair.

Every request type and area, with the method: A Chicago 311 Garbage-Cart Request Took a Median 15.9 Days to Close, a Pothole 5.8 and a Traffic-Signal-Out Report 3 Hours: 883,837 Requests Timed by Community Area

Affordable-rental inventory and the L

The city’s affordable-rental inventory lists 24 developments with 1,312 units in the Near North Side, fifth by units among the 66 community areas on the list. The inventory is the city’s own list of developments its programs support. It was last updated December 30, 2024 and is partial by its own description.

Our count of that inventory is in a piece that also covers the state law barring rent control: New York City’s Rent Board Set 2026-27 Stabilized Increases at Zero. Illinois Law Bars Chicago From Controlling Private Rents.

Seven L stations stand inside the Near North Side’s boundary. The seven with counts for both periods together averaged 54,222 weekday entries in January through May 2019 and 32,720 in the same months of 2026, 60 percent of the earlier figure. The busiest, Chicago, on the Red Line, averaged 7,397. Systemwide the figure is 62 percent.

Every station against its own 2019 count: Only Two L Stations Are Busier Than Before the Pandemic. Neither Is Downtown.

How this page is built

Every figure on this page is read from the published output of the analysis linked beside it, as those stood on October 1, 2026. Nothing here is measured separately, and each linked analysis states its own sources, periods and limits. The sale prices and buyer shares come from the county’s sales file as updated September 15, 2026. The county is still adding sales dated 2025, and those figures get another reading in January 2027. This page reports what the records show and takes no position on where anyone ought to live.

Assembled by KCM Desk from the analyses linked above. Published October 1, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.