There is a number in the August market data that I keep coming back to, and I do not think most sellers have seen it.
Year to date through August, the median detached home in Winnetka went under contract in 7 days. The average was 36 days.
Both numbers are correct. They describe the same 183 sales. And the gap between them is the most useful thing in the entire report.
Why the two numbers are so far apart
The median is the middle. Line up all 183 Winnetka sales by how long they took, and the one in the middle took a week.
The average is different. It adds up every single day on market and divides. So a handful of listings that sat for 120, 200, 300 days pull the whole thing upward, even though they are a small minority.
When the average is five times the median, it is telling you something specific. It is telling you that most homes sold almost immediately, and a small group did not sell for a very long time.
This is happening in every town, not just Winnetka
Here is the same comparison across the North Shore, detached homes, January through August of this year:
| Town | Median days | Average days |
|---|---|---|
| Winnetka | 7 | 36 |
| Wilmette | 7 | 26 |
| Evanston | 7 | 32 |
| Northfield | 8 | 37 |
| Glenview | 8 | 32 |
| Highland Park | 8 | 43 |
| Glencoe | 10 | 52 |
| Lake Forest | 10 | 60 |
| Kenilworth | 15 | 55 |
Nine towns. Nine medians in single digits or low teens. Nine averages three to six times higher.
Highland Park is a good example. The median was 8 days. The average was 43. Lake Forest is the widest gap on the list: 10 days at the median, 60 on average.
What separates the two groups
In my experience it is almost always the first asking price.
The homes in the median group came out at a number the market recognized, got attention in the first weekend, and were under contract before most people knew they were available. The homes dragging the average up came out high, got quiet showings, and then spent months chasing the market down.
The rest of the data supports that. Winnetka sellers closed at 103.6% of their original asking price year to date, up from 102.5% a year ago. That figure is measured against the first price, not a reduced one, so it is not hiding any cuts. Wilmette came in at 104.4%, Glencoe at 104.9%, Evanston at 103.7%.
That is not a market that punishes ambitious pricing with a slow sale. It is a market that rewards accurate pricing with a fast one and a number above asking.
There is a second number underneath all of this
Speed and price are both downstream of supply, and supply right now is very thin.
Months of supply is how long it would take to sell everything currently listed if nothing new came on. Under six months is usually described as a seller’s market. Under three is tight.
Wilmette is at 0.7 months. Not seven months. Seven tenths of one month.
Winnetka and Glenview are at 1.3. Northfield and Evanston at 1.2. Highland Park at 1.4. Kenilworth at 1.5, down from 2.5 a year ago. Lake Forest is the most supplied town on the list at 2.3 months, and that is still well inside seller’s market territory.
When there is that little to choose from, a correctly priced home does not have to wait for the right buyer. The right buyer is already looking and has nothing else to look at. That is why the medians are where they are.
The part people get wrong
The common instinct is to start high and adjust later. It feels like it costs nothing. You can always come down.
The data says otherwise. The market decides in the first two weeks, and it only decides once. After that you are not selling the house anymore, you are selling the price history, and buyers read that history carefully. A home that has been sitting for 90 days with two reductions gets treated as a problem to be negotiated, not a house to be bought.
There is no quiet period at the wrong price. There is just the group that sold in a week and the group that did not.
One honest caveat
This is a wide snapshot. It covers whole towns, all price points, all conditions. Inventory under $1 million is not behaving the same way as inventory over $3 million, and a town level median cannot tell you which side of that line your house sits on.
If you want to know what the numbers look like for your street and your price range specifically, I can pull that. There is no obligation attached to it. You can always reach out at anytime.
Source: Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), Local Market Update, August 2026. Figures cover detached single family homes, January through August 2026, compared with the same period in 2025.
