Northbrook

Why people love it

Start with the park district. It has 543 acres across 29 parks and two indoor ice rinks at the Sports Center. It also has the Meadowhill pools, a 113-acre prairie park at Techny with ball fields and a sled hill, and 36 holes of golf, 27 at Heritage Oaks on Dundee Road and a par 3 at Anetsberger. The velodrome at Meadowhill was built in 1960 and still holds bike races on summer Thursday nights; its infield, flooded for ice, is where the town's speed skaters trained until the 1990s.

Then the edges of town. The Chicago Botanic Garden sits past the northeast corner, a half mile east of the Edens on Lake Cook Road. The North Branch Trail cuts through Northbrook on its way there, and the Skokie Lagoons are a short ride down the trail. Downtown has Sunset Foods, the library, the Village Green, and Northbrook Days, which the Civic Foundation has put on since 1950.

What's changing

Downtown is being rebuilt a block at a time. Hometown Coffee is turning 1290 Shermer Road into a cafe with a patio, approved by the Village in November 2024. The Village is finishing plans for a wider walking path along Shermer, plus new sidewalks and outdoor dining on the 1300 block of Shermer and Meadow Road.

New homes are going up near the train. Lexington's last 25 Gateway townhomes at 1189 Shermer were nearly sold out in August 2026. Lexington plans to start pre-sales this fall on Northbrook Row, 53 rowhomes and townhomes at 1825 Shermer from the low $800,000s, an 11-minute walk to the station. Pulte has proposed about 150 condos at Meadow Plaza on Cherry Lane; the Village sent the plan to the Plan Commission in August 2026 and no hearing date is set. Poupard Place, 48 affordable apartments on the old Grainger site, opened in June 2026.

The biggest one is Northbrook Court. The Village has approved Brookfield Properties, which owns the mall, to build up to 2,000 homes and an open-air shopping center on the site over ten years or more. In 2025 the Village agreed to let Brookfield build the homes first. As of early September 2026 no construction start has been announced; the old Macy's site was cleared years ago. When it starts, the north end of town gains up to 2,000 households over a decade and Lake Cook Road gets busier. We will update this page as it moves.

What your money gets you here

These are real sales from Cook County records, the 12 months ending June 2026. The middle half of each group sold inside the range. The four groups cover 268 of the 302 houses that sold; the rest are older two-stories, 1980s ranches, a few 2016 to 2018 builds and some with no year on record.

• $470,000 to $725,000A 1950s to 1970s ranch or split-level, usually three bedrooms and 1,200 to 2,000 square feet. 122 sold, median $565,000.
• $805,000 to $1.1 millionA two-story from the late 1950s to the 1980s, four bedrooms, 2,600 to 3,200 square feet, often updated. 92 sold, median $915,000.
• $1.3 million to $1.76 millionA house built between 1990 and 2015, 3,300 to 4,400 square feet. 44 sold, median $1.45 million.
• $1.76 million to $2.24 millionNew construction, usually five bedrooms and around 3,900 square feet. 10 sold, median $2.01 million.
• Townhomes $560,000 to $743,750, condos $270,000 to $470,00048 townhomes sold, median $628,775. 91 condos sold, median $375,000.

The gap between the first rung and the last is where Northbrook's teardowns live. The small houses from before 1965 that sold under $500,000 this year, the ones builders buy, went for $203,000 to $490,000 (33 sales, median $433,000), most of them in the Highlands and east of Waukegan. A lot on Thornwood Lane sold for $310,000 in late 2024 and for $1.55 million a year later. The 1950s to 1970s ranches and splits that were kept sold for $550,000 to $800,000, median $640,000. So a buyer who wants to live in the house usually pays more than a builder. The lot wins when the house needs more work than a buyer will take on: old wiring, a wet basement, a kitchen nobody has touched since 1970. If you own one of these, that is the call to make before you spend a dollar on paint, and we make it with this year's numbers for your block.

Nine areas, drawn by the roads

Northbrook has few neighborhood names everyone agrees on. People steer by roads and school districts, so that is how we drew these nine areas: Lake Cook, Dundee, Techny and Willow running east to west, and Sanders, Landwehr, Pfingsten, Western, Waukegan and the Edens running north to south. The prices are the median house sale in each area over the last 12 months, from county records. Street names are examples, not borders. Where an area had fewer than five sales of a type, that type is left off its card.

Not to scale. Boxes follow the roads named along the edges; the number is the median house sale in that area over the last 12 months. Shermer Road runs at an angle through downtown and is left off to keep the picture readable.

Schools, by address

About 95 percent of Northbrook parcels feed Glenbrook North, the only public high school in town. The elementary years are split four ways, and two small pockets feed other districts, so the address decides. County records list the district for every parcel; ask us about any house and we will send it.

Getting around

The Northbrook Metra station is at 1401 Shermer Road, in the middle of downtown, on the Milwaukee District North line. Express trains reach Union Station in 40 to 43 minutes and locals in about 52, with 27 trains each way on weekdays, from 5:30 in the morning until after 11 at night. The station has 708 daily parking spaces at $2 a day, most of them reserved for Northbrook vehicle sticker holders, so residents get first call. Lake Cook Road, one stop north, is the second station.

By car, the Village puts downtown Chicago at 25 miles and about 40 minutes, and O'Hare at 17 miles and about 25 minutes. The Edens follows the east side of town with exits at Dundee, Tower and Willow, and the Tri-State is on the west side at Lake Cook and Willow. Pace routes 422, 213, 471 and 626 serve town; the Northbrook Court stop moved in June 2026. The 40 minutes is an off-peak number. At rush hour, plan on more, or plan on the train.

Taxes and water, in plain terms

Northbrook is in Cook County. Property taxes here run roughly 2 percent of the price each year; Ownwell puts the median Northbrook bill at $10,728. About two thirds of the bill goes to the school districts, the elementary district and Glenbrook 225 together. The exact bill for any house is public record by parcel number, so nobody has to guess. You can appeal your assessment twice a year, first to the Assessor and then to the Board of Review. Northfield Township was reassessed in 2025 and comes up again in 2028.

The West Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River runs through town, and the Village's own flood page says flooding happens. Most of it is not river flooding. The Village and the water district count about 1,000 buildings at risk in a 100-year storm from sewer backup and from rain that runs across yards and streets, against about 140 along the river. The Techny Drain, the Cherry Lane area and Wescott Park are the named trouble spots. So on any house in a low spot or near the water: ask for the seller's flood disclosure, and look for an overhead sewer, which keeps sewage from backing up into the basement, and a battery backup on the sump pump. The flood zone for any parcel is public, and we check it before you spend money on an inspection.

Selling in Northbrook

How we price and market a house is on Brandi's page. Three things are specific to Northbrook and belong here.

Timing. Northbrook houses close most often in June, July and August. That means contracts in April through June and a listing in March or April. January and February closings ran about a third of July's. Tell us the date you need to be out, or the number you need to net, and we will show you what each one costs.

Teardowns. If a builder would pay more for your lot than a buyer would pay for your house, we market it to builders as well as to people who want to live in it. That is how our Highlands listing at 2331 Dundee Road is going out now: offered as-is at $399,900, in the MLS as coming soon, with open houses September 12 and 13. The numbers above show where the line between a lot and a kept house sat this year, and we will show you which side yours is on.

Taxes. Cook County taxes are paid a year behind, so at closing the seller credits the buyer for the months they owned, usually 105 percent or more of the last bill, set in the contract. We show you the net number, not just the price. Curious what yours would bring? Reach out. You do not need to be ready to sell to ask.