Chicago’s suburban apartment market entered 2026 with plenty of momentum, fueled by larger transactions and investors eager to sink their dollars into multifamily projects in the collar counties surrounding the city, according to the latest research from Interra Realty.
Interra Realty, in its newly released first-quarter 2026 Suburban Chicago Multifamily Sales report, said that total multifamily sales volume surged 56.9% on a year-over-year basis in the city’s suburbs. The report tracked all suburban multifamily transactions ranging from $1 million to $50 million during the 12 months ending in March 2026.
The jump in dollar volume came despite the market posting the same number of completed deals as it did during the first quarter of 2025. Interra recorded 54 Chicago suburban multifamily sales during the first quarter of 2026, matching last year’s pace. But the value of those transactions climbed significantly, reaching $360.1 million in the first three months of this year compared to $229.5 million during the same period a year earlier.
The report’s findings suggest that investors are increasingly pursuing larger apartment assets instead of simply completing a higher number of deals.
“The Chicago suburban multifamily market kicked off 2026 with real momentum, driven by bigger individual transactions and a surge in collar county investment activity,” said Patrick Kennelly, managing partner at Interra, in a statement. “If that trajectory holds, suburban sales volume could surpass $1 billion by year’s end.”
Interra reported that the average suburban multifamily transaction size climbed to $6.6 million during the first quarter, up from $4.2 million during the same period in 2025.
The report also found that half of all suburban multifamily transactions occurred in Cook County. DuPage County followed with 33.6% of sales activity, while Kane County accounted for 15.4%.
Those two counties also generated larger-than-average deal sizes. DuPage County recorded an average transaction size of $9.3 million, while Kane County posted an average of $11.1 million, both easily exceeding the market average.
Interra reported, too, that the average deal sales price per apartment unit increased 4.3% year over year, rising from $142,102 to $148,209.
At the same time, the total number of units changing hands climbed sharply. A total of 2,430 apartment units traded during in the Chicago suburban market during the first quarter, up 50.4% from the 1,615 units sold during the first quarter of 2025.
That increase in unit volume, coupled with a flat transaction count, appears to point toward investors targeting larger, more institutional-quality properties.
Interra’s report found additional evidence supporting that trend. During the first quarter of 2026, 11 multifamily transactions ranging from $10 million to $50 million closed in suburban Chicago. During the same period in 2025, only six deals reached that size range.
Interra also remained active in the Chicago suburban market. The firm closed 52 suburban transactions over the last 12 months, including a $7.9 million sale of a nine-building, 36-unit rental townhome portfolio in Batavia and several smaller apartment transactions across suburban communities including Chicago Ridge, Mount Prospect, Summit and Park Ridge.
