Published September 24, 2026 in Market Update

Most Homes Found A Buyer In Week One, And Got More Than They Asked

By Maureen Moran

Real estate, 9.23.26 8007 AT

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. I'm Maureen, and I work in Chicago's Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, Gold Coast, Old Town, and Wicker Park. I pulled every sale through September 23, 2026, and one number stopped me cold. The typical home that sold in week one got 104% of what it first asked. The typical home that sold in week two got 99.1%.

Where I Started

I started with the whole market. Three hundred and nine homes sold. The typical one closed in 5 days and sold for 100.5% of what it first asked. Not a single home gave up and came off the market without a sale. That is a clean picture.

But a clean whole-market number can hide a lot. So I cut the data by week. I wanted to know whether it mattered when a home found its buyer.

It mattered more than almost anything else I measured.

The Turn Happened The Moment Week One Ended

One hundred and ninety-three homes sold in week one. Their typical sold price was $725,000, and they closed in 4 days. They got 104% of what they first asked. That means buyers were competing, and sellers were winning.

Forty-three homes sold in week two. Their typical sold price dropped to $647,000, and they got 99.1% of their first price. That is a swing of nearly 5 full percentage points in one week. The competition was gone.

Seventeen homes sold in week three. They got 98% of their first price and took 18 days. The longer a home sat, the more ground it gave back.

What This Means If You Are Selling Or Buying Right Now

If you are selling, the data says one thing plainly: price it to move in week one. Homes priced between $400K and $650K at first asking got 102.3% of that price. Homes priced between $650K and $900K got 102.5%. Homes priced between $900K and $1.45M got 103.1%. The pattern holds across ranges. The homes that got the most were the ones priced to draw buyers immediately, not the ones that tested a higher number first.

If you are buying, the window is real and it is short. One hundred and ninety-three of the 309 homes that sold closed in the first week. That is where most of the market moved. Nationally, the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.95% as of September 17, 2026, up from 6.76% the week before and from 6.26% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey. That rise in rates makes the price you pay matter even more. A home that goes to week two often comes down in price, but there is a reason it went to week two. I would encourage anyone looking right now to think hard about what they are waiting for, and whether the wait is likely to help them.

One More Cut That Surprised Me

I also cut the data by sold price range. Homes that sold between $700,000 and $1,150,000 had the highest share of sellers getting at or above their asking price: 82.4%. That is not the cheapest range and not the most expensive. It is the middle, and it performed the best.

Homes at $1,150,000 and up had the lowest share at 67.1%. That is still about 2 in 3 sellers getting their full price or more, which is a strong market by any measure. But the gap between 82.4% and 67.1% is real, and it tells you that buyers at the top of the market push back more.