Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in Elgin right now.
Neither side has the upper hand in Elgin. Buyers and sellers are evenly matched. The market will not hand you a discount. You have to find it in one specific listing.
For every 100 homes for sale, 120 are already under contract. Buyers outnumber sellers here. Expect company when you bid. Few sellers are dropping their price. Asking prices are holding firm. Your discount will come from one stale listing, not from the whole market.
A typical Elgin home takes 28 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 14% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 30+ days ago. There are 139 homes for sale in Elgin. That is 1.9 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 485. Supply is growing against last year.
Asking prices are at their highest point on record. You are buying at the top. Underwrite it that way. Prices are rising again. Every month you wait costs money. The question is no longer when. It is which house. Elgin prices have risen in 98 of the last 108 months. Drops here have been short and shallow. Buying in a slow month has rarely hurt a long hold.
This market is turning. Which way is not settled yet. Check the monthly numbers above before you commit.
In Elgin, 26 out of every 100 households rent. Most own their home. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 28 in 100. Just 3.0% of homes sit empty. A well-priced rental fills fast here.
The median Elgin household earns $96,385 a year. Incomes here have grown 5.5% a year since 2019. Incomes and home prices are rising in step. A typical home costs 4.6 times the median income. That is the national middle. Neither cash flow nor appreciation is free here. A tenant on the median income can pay about $2,410 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast.
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in Elgin right now. 1.20 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 16% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 28 days to sell.
Asking prices are at their highest point on record. You are buying at the top. Underwrite it that way. Prices are rising again. Every month you wait costs money. The question is no longer when. It is which house.
+5.1%/yr. 1 year: 0.0% · 5 years: +6.3% · ten years: +5.1%. The five-year and ten-year rates agree. That is a durable trend, not a boom artifact. It is a fair long-run input. Measure growth per square foot, not on the median. The median moves when the mix of listed homes moves. Your house does not. The one-year rate is a timing signal. It is not an underwriting input.
A typical Elgin home takes 28 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 14% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 30+ days ago.
In Elgin, 26 out of every 100 households rent. Most own their home. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 28 in 100. Just 3.0% of homes sit empty. A well-priced rental fills fast here.
A tenant on the median income can pay about $2,410 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast. The median Elgin household earns $96,385 a year.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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