One railroad organizes the northwest suburbs the way a spine organizes a body. The Union Pacific Northwest Line leaves Ogilvie Transportation Center and doesn’t stop being useful until Harvard, near the Wisconsin border — and its corridor spans nearly the entire Chicagoland housing market, from a $175,000 median in Harvard to over $900,000 in the Barrington countryside. This is the list, with the numbers — a companion to our west suburbs reference, built the same way.
How we defined “northwest suburbs”
Same rule as the west list: we followed the railroad. The UP-NW’s suburban stops run through Cook County into McHenry County, and we list every suburb with a station, plus notable communities in the same corridor that have no station of their own. Stops inside the City of Chicago (Jefferson Park, Norwood Park, Edison Park and others) belong to the city, not this list.
Two boundary notes so nobody gets misfiled: Schaumburg and Hanover Park ride the Milwaukee District West line and appear on the west list; Wheeling, Prospect Heights, and Buffalo Grove ride the North Central Service, a different corridor for a different day.
Every figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates, the most recent release), and every station assignment was checked against Metra’s published UP-NW station list in July 2026. Where a town has more than one station (Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Arlington Heights, Crystal Lake), it appears once.
The list
Union Pacific Northwest Line
Ogilvie Transportation Center to Harvard, with a branch to McHenry — 12 towns below.
| Town | Population | Median home value | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arlington Heights | 76,005 | $414,500 | $116,723 |
| Palatine | 66,293 | $355,600 | $97,819 |
| Des Plaines | 59,156 | $335,600 | $97,875 |
| Mount Prospect | 55,472 | $397,400 | $101,720 |
| Crystal Lake | 40,579 | $311,400 | $108,418 |
| Park Ridge | 38,667 | $551,200 | $142,986 |
| McHenry | 28,074 | $266,500 | $86,315 |
| Woodstock | 26,147 | $245,700 | $82,758 |
| Cary | 17,923 | $309,800 | $113,026 |
| Barrington | 11,077 | $582,500 | $147,989 |
| Harvard | 9,598 | $175,400 | $67,617 |
| Fox River Grove | 4,523 | $298,900 | $121,506 |
No Metra station of their own
Communities in the corridor without a station of their own — 11 towns below.
| Town | Population | Median home value | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoffman Estates | 51,175 | $351,900 | $106,806 |
| Streamwood | 39,001 | $271,200 | $101,218 |
| Elk Grove Village | 31,987 | $347,100 | $94,175 |
| Algonquin | 30,067 | $351,000 | $134,525 |
| Lake in the Hills | 28,800 | $321,900 | $117,151 |
| Huntley | 28,005 | $334,300 | $88,536 |
| Rolling Meadows | 24,027 | $326,200 | $98,514 |
| Lake Zurich | 19,832 | $435,300 | $135,968 |
| Inverness | 7,275 | $715,600 | $207,434 |
| South Barrington | 5,021 | $908,300 | $221,575 |
| Barrington Hills | 3,879 | $913,600 | $205,074 |
What the numbers show
One line, a five-fold price range. Harvard, at the far end of the line, posts a $175,400 median home value — the cheapest rail-served town we’ve measured on any corridor so far. Barrington Hills and South Barrington, in the same corridor, top $900,000. The train is the same; the housing markets are not remotely.
Price falls as the line runs out. Close-in Cook towns (Park Ridge $551,200, Arlington Heights $414,500) post median values roughly double the McHenry County end of the line (Woodstock $245,700, McHenry $266,500). For a commuter willing to sit on the train longer, the same money goes much further from the Loop — and the express-versus-local schedule difference is worth checking before you decide what “longer” actually means.
The no-station towns are not the discount rack here. On the west corridors, station towns often price above their stationless neighbors. Northwest, it’s frequently inverted: Inverness ($715,600), South Barrington ($908,300), and Barrington Hills ($913,600) have no stop of their own and sit at the top of the market, while rail-served Harvard and Woodstock anchor the bottom. Whatever is doing the pricing in the Barrington countryside, it plainly isn’t distance to a platform — a caution against reading any single amenity as the market.
How to use this honestly
Census five-year figures are estimates pooled over 2020–2024, published for a whole municipality — they describe a town, not a house, they carry margins of error, and they lag today’s asking prices. Median home value is what owners report their homes are worth, not current listings. Use the tables to cut twenty-three towns down to five; use listings, a train ride, and a walk to pick one.
And budget past the sticker: Illinois home-insurance premiums rose 32% between 2018 and 2022 (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; our breakdown), and property taxes differ meaningfully between Cook, Lake, and McHenry counties. Two identical prices can carry very different monthly costs.
Sources & data
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey — 2024 five-year estimates, the current release (B01003 population, B25077 median home value, B19013 median household income), retrieved via the Census API on July 16, 2026
- Metra Union Pacific Northwest station list — verified July 17, 2026
Compiled by KCM Desk; figures verified against the sources above as of July 17, 2026. Census estimates carry margins of error and are updated annually; we refresh these tables when new vintages release. Spot an error, or a town we should add? Corrections come first.