More Homes Sold In Wilmette Last Year Than Any Since 1992

WILMETTE, IL — More homes were sold in Wilmette amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 than in any of the previous 28 years, according to local real estate data. Five homes sold for more than $3 million last year, including two neighboring properties.

High demand from buyers meant median sales prices of condos, townhomes and single-family residences in Wilmette met or exceeded the median listing price for four months last summer.

In December 2020, the median closing price and median listing price each stood at $335,000, according to Realtor.com listing data, down by 4.3 percent year-on-year.

Homes sold in the village last month spent an average of 70 days on the market, selling more than two weeks faster than they did a year earlier.

According to the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors, more units were sold in Wilmette in 2020 than in any year since 1992.

A total of 449 residential units in Wilmette changed hands last year, up from 366 the prior year. And the mean average price of homes sold in the village rose to more than $902,000, its highest level since 2008.

Area realtors say buyers have been moving from Chicago — especially high-rises — to the north suburbs in search of more room and an increased sense of safety, according to North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors CEO Jeff Lasky.

"They want to have space between themselves and their neighbors. They want to have space to build their home theater. They want to have space to have their home office. Stuff like that, which was not an issue, a year ago," Lasky said.

As buyers and sellers shunned in-person visits, the pandemic accelerated ongoing trends toward online shopping for real estate, with livestreamed virtual tours and fully electronic document signing now commonplace.

"The necessity of doing the shopping by driving people around to 10, 12, 15 different places is long gone," Lasky said. "But you can even conduct the financing process, conduct the signing of closing documents, everything else, and take ownership of the home — without having to go somewhere to do it."

Lasky said a combination of high demand driven by low interest rates and a low supply of available homes has made for a highly competitive market across the North Shore.

"If you're going to go out there and sell your home and it's priced correctly, you're going to get a number of offers," he said. "You're going to get a lot of action quickly."

Most Expensive Homes Sold In Wilmette In 2020

The village's most expensive home sale of the year was the 0.61-acre lakefront property at 1126 Michigan Ave., which sold for $8 million in October.

According to county records, the 8,282-square-foot house was built in 1995.

Sellers Brad and Mary Whitmore purchased the property for $2.2 million in 1994 before building the house. It was not listed publicly and was purchased through a trust formed in August 2020 that conceals its beneficiary, according to property records.

According to the Cook County Assessor's Office, the property's estimated market value was nearly $7.27 million last year. Its annual property tax bill was about $180,000.

Number 2: A five-bedroom, 4,555-square-foot home on a 0.55-acre lakefront lot sold for $4.957 million in November. The 1927-built French Eclectic home at 10 Canterbury Court received a historic preservation award from the village in 2012.

Number 3: A lakefront home built in 1990 at 1311 Sheridan Road sold for $4.08 million in January 2020. It was the first time the property had sold in more than 37 years.