The upper end of the western suburbs, covered properly — what a house is worth and when we pulled the figure, the architecture on each street, and a film about every town we work.
House is the homes, the architecture and the market. Main is the streets, the restaurants and the people. Downers Grove and Naperville first.
Photographs: Downers Grove by David Wilson, CC BY 2.0 · Naperville by Jules Verne Times Two, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.
Hand-picked at $725,000 and up, Downers Grove to Barrington Hills, with why. Real listings, credited to the brokerage that holds them, as of 7 Sep 2026. If one of these is the house, ask us before you ask a portal.
Under contract5 bed · 5.1 bath · 6,429 sq ft · 0.63 acres · built 2016
Why we picked itHalf an acre on the north side, built 2016, with garage bays across two structures. The rare Downers Grove house that was designed rather than assembled.
Under contract4 bed · 4 bath · 4,397 sq ft
Why we picked itFour full baths in 4,400 square feet on the north side, behind a stone-and-stucco front and a deep tiered garden. Under contract, which tells you the number was right.
Under contract4 bed · 5 bath · 3,070 sq ft
Why we picked itA two-story with five baths in 3,070 square feet south of 55th, on a grid where most neighbours are ranches. The most house on its block.
For sale4 bed · 3.1 bath · 2,324 sq ft · built 2010
Why we picked itOne of 57 in a wooded enclave off Chase, built 2010, with a screened porch over the trees. Townhome living without the townhome feel.
For sale4 bed · 1.1 bath · 2,000 sq ft · built 1891
Why we picked itThe 1891 Gesner House on a brick street in Pierce Downer, looking over Prince Pond. History you can walk to the station from.
5 bed · 5.1 bath · 11,600 sq ft · 5.3 acres · built 2026
Why we picked itNew this year on 5.3 acres: floor-to-ceiling glass and an open plan that reads California, on Barrington Hills ground. The only new build at this scale in the village right now.
6 bed · 7 bath · 12,810 sq ft · 7.79 acres · built 2007
Why we picked itAn English country manor on 7.79 acres along Goose Lake, finished in 2011 around the owners' antiques. The one house here that was built as a place, not a plan.
5 bed · 6.1 bath · 9,665 sq ft · 5 acres · built 2027
Why we picked itUnder construction for 2027 delivery: a first-floor primary suite, two studies and a six-car garage on five acres with the riding trails at the end of the drive. Buy it before the finishes are chosen.
5 bed · 5.2 bath · 7,602 sq ft · 5.14 acres · built 1994
Why we picked itFrench Country brick on Hawley Lake with 400 feet of private shoreline, an orchard, and lawns that roll to the water. Thirty years old and the setting has only improved.
5 bed · 6.1 bath · 12,000 sq ft · 8 acres · built 1984
Why we picked itEight acres and 450 feet of Hawley Lake shoreline, offered for the first time since it was built. Twelve thousand square feet, and the land is the reason.
Slide to your ideal home value, pick the suburb, leave an email. You get a short, hand-picked set of houses in that range — not a portal feed, and not a sequence.
A person reads this and replies. No drip campaign.
Downers Grove and Naperville first — what a budget buys, which blocks, what the taxes actually are, and what is going up. 100 pieces published so far, every figure in them sourced and dated.
The first town we cover properly. Prices, blocks, taxes and schools.
The second. Bigger, older in the middle, and four different markets inside it.
New construction, renovation and what it actually costs here.
Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Oak Brook and Western Springs — next in line.
Every one of these puts Downers Grove or Naperville against the town buyers actually weigh it against, with the taxes and the housing stock side by side and a stated view at the end. We compare on price, taxes, architecture and inventory — never on who lives there.
A house at this level is a set of decisions somebody made about materials. These are the four we check first, in this order, and the reason we can tell you what a renovation actually did.
Original wood casements or a 2004 vinyl replacement. It changes the number more than the kitchen does, and it is the first thing we check.
Quarter-sawn oak, plaster crown, a real staircase. Trim is where a renovation either respected the house or papered over it.
Slate, cedar or architectural shingle, and where the grade sends the water. Half the expensive surprises in this market start here.
Setbacks, the neighbouring rooflines, and whether the block is being bought for land. In a teardown market that is the whole story.
Set the budget and say what actually matters — the land, the architecture, whether you would take on a renovation. The panel writes your brief back to you as a sentence, and that sentence is what a person reads at this end.
Most agent sites quote a market. We publish what we pulled, when we pulled it, and what we haven’t got round to — because a number without a date is a decoration.
| Town | Typical home | Twelve months | What the housing stock is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downers Grove | $514,000Jun 2026 | +6.2% | Prairie and Victorian stock downtown, post-war ranches on the edges |
| Westmont | not pulled | not pulled | Mid-century ranches and split-levels, a rebuilding market |
| Lisle | not pulled | not pulled | Seventies and eighties subdivisions, larger lots east of the river |
| Clarendon Hills | $712,000Jun 2026 | not pulled | Small village grid, older frame houses, heavy teardown pressure |
| Hinsdale | $1,300,000Jun 2026 | not pulled | Historic district, Prairie and Tudor originals, new builds on the gaps |
| Naperville | not pulled | not pulled | Historic near downtown, planned subdivisions everywhere else |
Sources. Home values: Zillow ZHVI, pulled 30 June 2026 — Zillow’s typical value for the whole town, which is the middle of the market and not the top of it. At $1M and above the sample is thin enough that we would rather talk about a specific block than quote a town-wide figure. Blank cells are values we have not pulled; we leave them empty instead of estimating. Housing stock read off the streets and the assessor’s records, not off listing copy.
We would rather know two towns block by block than six of them from a listing feed. Downers Grove and Naperville are the ones we cover properly — the rest are on the same page because buyers cross between them, and they get the same treatment in turn.
House is the homes, the architecture and the market. Main is the restaurants, the people and the character of the town. One town at a time.
Send us a street and we’ll tell you what we know about it — the township, the assessor’s record, what sold there this year, and what we’d have to look up.
Ask about a block → SellingA one-page read on your street: recent sales, the tax-appeal window for your township, and what a buyer sees before they see your house.
Get the block report →
