New Lenox Home Prices Rank Below Neighboring Towns

New Lenox's home prices dropped the most in Will County last year, but overall the village has a real estate market with middle-of-the-road prices in the south suburbs.

Nearby Lemont and Frankfort are among the most expensive real estate markets in Illinois, according to a recent report from Coldwell Banker.

New Lenox's average home listing price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house is $331,854. Lemont's comes in at $458,876, the report finds, while Frankfort's is $373,079. Of the 139 real estate markets reviewed in Illinois, Lemont ranked as the 15th most expensive market and Frankfort ranks as 32nd.

Lake Forest, at $753,593, is the state’s most expensive market while Kankakee, at $86,621, is the most affordable.

In the Southland, Palos Heights is No. 42, Mokena is 44 and Orland Park comes in at 46. New Lenox is No. 48. The overall state average for four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes in Illinois was $301,258, which is slightly higher than the national average of $293,251.

Coldwell Banker put together its 2011 Home Listing Report by surveying average home listing prices in 2,300 North American housing markets between September 2010 and March 2011. All data was taken from listings on www.coldwellbanker.com.

Kim Katsenes, a local realtor with Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell, said many market experienced drops in median home prices because of the volume of rentals, which are mixed in with the sales data.

"In the case of New Lenox, we have experienced a significant demand for residential rentals," she said. "These transactions, mixed with re-sale figures are, I believe, skewing the median home price."

As reported in May, 238 of 252 Chicago-area zip codes tracked by Fiserv Inc. saw their home prices fall in 2010, with the overall drop being about 5.2 percent. , at 5.8 percent, but it was the worst in the county.

HOME LISTINGS REPORT RANKINGS