Downtown Northbrook and the Highlands

What it is

This is the part of Northbrook that was here first. The streets east of Western Avenue, the Highlands, have houses going back to the 1920s, and most of the houses went up between 1940 and 1965 on lots that today hold either the original house or a new one two to three times its size. Downtown is Shermer Road, Meadow Road and Cherry Lane around the Village Green, with the Metra station at 1401 Shermer in the middle of it.

The new townhomes are here too. Gateway Northbrook, 68 townhomes at Shermer Road and Church Street a block from the station, sold new starting in 2019 and now come up for resale, and so do the Sterling Place townhomes on Kingsley Circle, built 2019 to 2022 down by Techny Road. As of August 2026, Lexington's 25 Gateway townhomes at 1189 Shermer were nearly sold out, and Northbrook Row, 53 rowhomes and townhomes at 1825 Shermer, was expected to start pre-sales in fall 2026 from the low $800,000s.

Streets you will see in the table: Cedar Lane, Thornwood Lane, Maple Avenue, Elm Avenue, Sycamore Lane, Illinois Road, Chapel Court, Center Street and Shermer Road; the Gateway Northbrook townhomes on Shermer Road and Gateway Court, and Sterling Place on Kingsley Circle.

What sold, and for how much

78 houses sold here between July 2025 and June 2026, from $330,000 to $2,400,000. The middle half sold between $515,000 and $1,410,000, and the median was $728,750. The prior period, August 2024 to June 2025, came in at $565,000. The largest group of houses that sold was built in the 1950s (29 of the 77 with a year on record), with 1960s and 1940s houses mixed in. The middle half of them had 1,308 to 2,848 square feet, and 43 of the 77 with a bedroom count had four bedrooms or more. At the median a house went for about $417 a square foot.

The top sale was $2,400,000, a 2025 house on Chapel Court with 5,101 square feet, in October 2025.

Townhomes and condos: 14 townhomes sold, $290,000 to $830,000, median $645,000; 15 condos sold, $140,000 to $676,000, median $245,000.

If you own a small house from before 1965 here, the first question is whether a builder or a buyer will pay more for it. This year 13 of the 78 houses that sold were small houses from before 1965 that went for under $500,000, which is lot money. The houses built between 1945 and 1979 that were kept sold for $555,000 to $811,000 (middle half, median $713,000). The seven new houses (built 2016 or later) went for $1,750,000 to $2,400,000. So the lot wins when the house needs more work than a buyer will take on, and the house wins when it does not. We run both numbers for your block before you spend a dollar on paint. Our listing at 2331 Dundee Road is one of these: it goes into the MLS September 7, 2026, offered as-is at $399,900 to builders and to people who want to live in it, with open houses September 12 and 13.

What is nearby

• The Metra station. 1401 Shermer Road, Milwaukee District North line. Express trains reach Union Station in 40 to 43 minutes, 27 trains each way on weekdays.
• The Village Green. Ten acres at Shermer and Meadow, with Tuesdays in the Park concerts in summer. Northbrook Days, which the Civic Foundation has put on since 1950, now runs at the Metra commuter lot a few blocks away.
• The library and Village Hall. Northbrook Public Library at 1201 Cedar Lane, with Village Hall next door on Cedar.
• Sunset Foods and the farmers market. Sunset Foods at 1127 Church Street. The Wednesday farmers market sets up at Meadow Plaza on Cherry Lane.
• Meadowhill Park. On Maple Avenue: the Aquatic Center's four outdoor pools and the 1960 velodrome, where bike races still run on summer Thursday nights.
• What is coming. As of September 2026, Hometown Coffee was turning 1290 Shermer Road into a cafe with a patio, and the Village planned a wider walking path along Shermer and year-round outdoor dining on the 1300 block. The full list is in the Northbrook guide.

Schools, by address

Greenbriar (2195 Cherry Lane), Meadowbrook (1600 Walters Avenue) and Northbrook Junior High (1475 Maple Avenue) are all inside this area, so most of these addresses are a walk or a short ride to school. That is District 28. The south edge, toward Techny Road, is District 30: Wescott, then Maple.

Of the 107 homes that sold here in the last 12 months, county records put 87 in District 28 and 20 in District 30. All of them feed Glenbrook North. County records list the district for every parcel, so ask us about any address and we will send it.

The Cherry subwatershed, which takes in Cherry Lane, is one of the three problem areas named in the Village's stormwater plan. On any house near the river, ask for the seller's flood disclosure and look for an overhead sewer and a battery backup on the sump pump.