Illinois Housing Market Report — November 2026

Scores: a plateau month, still below 50

The Illinois RDN Market Score was 48.6 on November 1, unchanged from October and 1.9 points below the 50.5 recorded in November 2025. Buy and Sell Scores moved by a tenth of a point each: 39.6 and 42.2. The “Mixed Market” verdict and the “Stressed for both sides” quadrant therefore persist. These are editorial indicators on a 0–100 scale, not transactions, appraisals or official government indexes.

A flat month is still informative. The Buy Score has been below 40 for two consecutive months after September's 40.6, and its two weakest components are structural rather than monthly: the mortgage-rate component held at 0.7 of 12 points with the 30-year rate above 7%, and mortgage-credit access contributed 0.3 of 5 on an approval-rate series that has not been refreshed since the 2025 HMDA release. Population and migration contributed 1.9 of 5, held down by the flagged migration signal described below.

Against November 2025, the Buy Score is 5.3 points lower and the Sell Score 5.1 points lower, while the Market Score is 1.9 points lower. That pattern—both perspectives weaker, with the overall reading falling less—is what the two-sided balance component is built to capture. Explore the live score breakdown; unlike this frozen report, the hub can change when source data are revised.

Home prices: annual gains hold, the monthly pace stays modest

Zillow's Illinois typical home value was $295,943 in September, up 0.50% from a revised $294,482 in August and 5.29% from $281,080 in September 2025. The monthly increase is smaller than the annual one, the same relationship as last month: values are still rising, but not at the pace implied by the year-over-year figure. Data provided by Zillow Group.

The other two measures did not advance this month because their publishers had not released newer periods at this cutoff. Redfin's Illinois median sale price remained $337,900 for May, up 5.9% from May 2025, and the FHFA Illinois purchase-only HPI remained 334.38 for Q2, up 0.51% on the quarter and 5.61% year over year. Three series, three different methods: agreement on positive annual changes does not make their levels interchangeable.

Mortgage rates: above 7% and higher than a year ago

The national Freddie Mac PMMS 30-year fixed rate was 7.24% for the week of October 29, versus 7.03% on September 24 and 6.17% on October 30, 2025 — a rise of 1.07 percentage points over the year. It has now held above 7% for the second half of 2026. This national survey rate is not a quote for any Illinois borrower.

The rate matters twice in this model: directly through the mortgage-rate component, which contributes 0.7 of a possible 12 points, and indirectly through affordability, which compares a monthly payment at the current rate with median household income and contributes 4.2 of 13. Neither component moved meaningfully this month, which is why the Buy Score did not either. See mortgage and credit data on the hub.

Supply and demand: inventory above last year, pending sales below it

Active listings were 22,584 in September, 5.8% above August and 0.2% above September 2025. Pending listings were 14,615, down 8.2% from August and 5.8% from a year earlier, while new listings were 12,438, down 2.4% and 4.8% respectively. More homes on the market with fewer under contract is the shape of a buyer's market that has not yet shown up in prices.

Price-reduced listings numbered 8,304, about 36.8% of active listings against about 36.5% a year earlier. Median days on market was 39, one day fewer than a year earlier and well below January's 65. These are counts of listings rather than measures of how far individual prices were cut, and the autumn seasonal pattern argues against treating one month as a turning point. The series come from Realtor.com® Economic Research via FRED®.

Economy, construction and remodeling inputs

Illinois unemployment was 4.6% in September, down from 4.7% in August and 5.1% through the spring, but slightly above September 2025's 4.5%. Seasonally adjusted private housing units authorized were about 1,190 in September, against about 1,974 in August and about 1,650 a year earlier. A single month's authorization count is noisy — August was revised upward, September fell — and an authorization is not a completed home.

Construction inputs kept climbing. National producer prices for goods inputs to residential construction were 355.2 in September, up 9.7% year over year, and lumber and wood products were 282.3, up 8.7%. Those national producer indexes are not Illinois retail prices or contractor bids. Their relevance here is comparative: input costs are rising roughly twice as fast as Illinois home values, which is the arithmetic behind the Remodel Value sub-index and its negative spread of −4.4 points. Read the material-price methodology.

In the separately lagged credit series, 1.2% of Illinois mortgages were 90 or more days delinquent in March 2026, versus 1.0% in March 2025, according to CFPB Mortgage Performance Trends. The observation date is eight months before this report; it is not a November 2026 delinquency reading.

Population and migration: the same extreme signal, unchanged

The Census Population Estimates Program vintage through July 1, 2025 is unchanged from last month: net domestic migration of −40,017, net international migration of +44,752 and total population change of +16,108. Combined net migration fell by 53,306 persons year over year, which Illinois RDN's abnormal-signal check flags as extreme — about 3.1 robust standard deviations below its historical norm.

Because the PEP vintage is annual and has not been revised, that flag will keep applying a −5 point adjustment to all three scores until a new vintage is published. It is a statistical flag on a published Census series, not an account of why people moved, a judgment about migration, or a forecast of future demand.