This Issue August 2026 edition
377 vs 681
Distinct flip operators recording a resale this edition, against the same window a year ago
The flip field halved: 377 operators recorded an exit this edition against 681 a year ago, and the ones still selling are pricier and more concentrated
Flip exits fell to 534 from 922 a year ago, and the operator count behind them fell further, to 377 from 681. The ones still closing sold at a higher median price, $334,602 against $316,036, and held less time, 207 days versus 238.5. Concentration rose as the field thinned: the top ten operators took 18.8% of flip revenue, up from 11.2% a year ago. Cook County carried 65.9% of exits against 58.0%, and the median exit sat 27.1 km from the CBD versus 32.1 km. Recorded counts lag four to eight weeks.
Investor Playbook
What this issue's numbers suggest checking, by investor type. Observations from recorded data — not investment, legal, or tax advice.
Fewer buyers on the list; price the spread to the ones still closing
With 377 operators recording exits against 681 a year ago, the buyer bench is thinner and the median recorded spread has fallen to $44,000 from $53,750. The data suggests focusing on where flip demand still shows up in volume: 60628 (Roseland) logged 16 flips against 107 investor buys on a $132,000 median buy, and Roseland, 60620 and 60617 are the top areas for the 3-8 lifetime-flip operator band. Worth re-verifying buyer capacity before locking long inspection periods.
Exits are slower to appear than buys — watch what you add to a 15,507-unit pipeline
938 flip acquisitions against 534 exits put 404 net units into inventory this edition, versus 321 a year ago; tracked pipeline stands at 15,507 units in the latest month. Median hold on what did sell was 207 days, down from 238.5, and median sale-to-assessed was 1.56 against 1.45. Worth checking whether new buys pencil at the current 1,400 sqft, 3-bed, 1956-vintage median profile at $237/sqft exit rather than at last year's assumptions.
The basis gap sits in 2-4 units and apartments, not single family
Single-family buys cleared at $375,000 and $239/sqft this edition; 2-4 units at $277,320 and $137/sqft, apartments 5+ at $565,000 and $183/sqft. Condos, 4,119 deals, sat at $326,000 and $233/sqft — close to single-family per foot. Only 0.7% of flips were small multi, so hold buyers face limited competition from resale operators in that product. Worth checking Joliet ($281,000, $181/sqft) and Tinley Park ($320,000, $198/sqft) against the $415,000 Chicago median.
Recorded private paper is scarce; the rehab slot is where the volume sits
Only 33 private loans were recorded this edition against 93 a year ago, at a $267,000 median versus $161,250. The trailing-twelve-month file shows the gap being filled by scaled lenders: Kiavi 142 loans (86.6% rehab-funded, $231,200 median), RFLF 4 at 105 and Loan Funder at 102, all at loan-to-price above 1.2. Median financed loan across the market is $216,000 at 0.97 loan-to-price. Terms and rates are not recorded and are not published here.
897 apartment buys at the lowest per-foot basis in the file
Apartment 5+ was the third-largest residential product by count, 897 deals at a $565,000 median and $182.83/sqft — below single family and condo per foot. Twenty-nine apartment properties were resold as flips at $57/sqft, and three of the eight largest-margin exits this edition were Apartment 5+ in 60647, 60660 and 60657. Note that DuPage purchases read 767 against 1,725 a year ago, which may reflect a partial county file; worth confirming before drawing county-level conclusions.
Factoids
Numbers from this period a practitioner would repeat to a colleague. Each computed directly from recorded instruments.
12,206 investor purchases — Recorded investor purchases this edition, median $365,000
Buy-side volume is close to flat year over year while flip exits fell 42%, so the pullback is concentrated in resale, not acquisition. Median purchase price is $5,000 below the year-ago figure.
$153,667 median gross flip margin — Median gross margin on flips sold this edition
Median margin percentage rose to 84.8% from 77.9%. Rehab and carry costs are not public record, so these are gross of work done.
7% of buyers from out of state — Out-of-state share of investor purchases, median price $408,500
Out-of-state money is buying above the local median, led by CA 105, FL 102 and TX 70 purchases. Local buyers still set price in most bands.
33 recorded private loans — Private loans recorded this edition, median $267,000
Fewer, larger recorded private loans. Over the trailing twelve months 60.0% of observed investor purchases carried recorded financing, and 39.9% of those 2,641 financed deals also funded rehab.
$183/sqft on Apartment 5+ buys — Median price per square foot paid on 897 apartment purchases
The per-foot gap between apartment stock and single family remains the widest basis spread in this edition. 2-4 unit buys, 44 of them, cleared at $137/sqft on a $277,320 median.
16 wholesale assignments — Assignments surfacing on recorded deeds, median spread $44,000
Both count and spread are down year over year. Treat this as a floor — most assignments never touch a recorded deed.
Market Activity — Investor Purchases
Monthly count of investor purchases of MSA properties (left axis) and the median purchase price (right axis), trailing 13 months. The most recent month can grow up to ~15% as late recordings arrive.
Investor purchases per month (bars) and median purchase price (line), trailing 13 months.
Which vintage of housing investors bought this edition, by decade built.
Where the Money Went
The geography of the period's investor activity: which zip codes saw the most recorded deals, and the largest individual transactions at street level.
The 8 busiest zip codes for investor deals
Pins rank the busiest zips by recorded investor deals (purchases + flips of existing homes) this period — #1 busiest; orange = top 3; pin size scales with deal volume. Median buy is the typical investor purchase; median sale the typical flip resale. Click a pin for details; full table below.
| # | Zip | Area | Purchases | Flips | Median buy | Median sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 60614 | Lincoln Park | 197 | 3 | $786,000 | n/a |
| #2 | 60657 | Lakeview | 177 | 5 | $625,000 | $352,000 |
| #3 | 60611 | Streeterville | 178 | 1 | $477,500 | n/a |
| #4 | 60618 | North Center | 154 | 3 | $650,000 | n/a |
| #5 | 60622 | Wicker Park | 151 | 4 | $730,000 | n/a |
| #6 | 60613 | Lakeview East | 149 | 1 | $350,000 | n/a |
| #7 | 60647 | Logan Square | 145 | 5 | $755,000 | $1.3M |
| #8 | 60610 | Near North Side | 138 | 6 | $475,000 | $473,500 |
A representative deal in each of the busiest zips
One deal per zip: the largest matching this market's typical house (typical for this market: 1419 sqft, 3 bed, built around 1960; priced within 4x the county assessment and under 5x its own zip's median).
$1.5M · Purchase
65 W SCHILLER ST, Chicago 60610
Street View Aug 2019 — before the purchase
$1.4M · Purchase
457 W FULLERTON PKWY # 2, Chicago 60614
Street View Nov 2025 — before the purchase
$1.3M · Purchase
1860 N WILMOT AVE, Chicago 60647
Street View Sep 2024 — before the purchase
$1.3M · Purchase
1532 N ELK GROVE AVE # L, Chicago 60622
Street View Sep 2024 — before the purchase
$1.1M · Purchase
1418 W WAVELAND AVE, Chicago 60613
Street View Dec 2025 — before the purchase
$1.1M · Purchase
3141 N RACINE AVE APT 3, Chicago 60657
Street View Oct 2015 — before the purchase
$1.0M · Purchase
3619 N FRANCISCO AVE, Chicago 60618
Street View Sep 2022 — before the purchase
$820,000 · Purchase
55 E ERIE ST APT 2103, Chicago 60611
Street View Jul 2025 — before the purchase
Deal sheet — private lending, in date order
Private loans recorded against residential property this period, oldest first.
| Date | Lender | Amount | Property | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 4 | Quinn Matthew | $576,000 | 135 N Peck Ave, La Grange 60525 | Single family |
| May 4 | Hrair Garabedian Ira | $175,000 | 12816 S Laflin ST, Calumet Park 60827 | Single family |
| May 6 | Hatton Richard | $120,000 | 904 E Greenwood DR, Mount Prospect 60056 | Single family |
| May 8 | American Community BK&TR | $50,000 | 1060 N Highland Ave, Aurora 60506 | Single family |
| May 19 | Ibarra Yakile | $240,000 | 1532 N 39TH Ave, Stone Park 60165 | Single family |
| Jun 3 | Mazzone Olga | $131,250 | 16784 Trapet Ave, Hazel Crest 60429 | Single family |
| Jun 17 | Kelliher Kevin | $185,000 | 11545 S Loomis ST, Chicago 60643 | Single family |
| Jun 22 | Johnson Donald | $400,000 | 222 N Mineral Springs RD, Chesterton 46304 | Single family |
Largest flip margin deals of the period, at street level
Gross margin = recorded sale price minus the flipper's recorded purchase price. Purchase deeds are recoverable for roughly 4 in 10 flips; rehab and carry costs are not public record.
$1.2M gross · bought $488,000 (Nov 2024) → sold $1.7M
570 S PARKSIDE AVE, Elmhurst 60126
Street View Oct 2023 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$1.2M gross · bought $425,000 (Feb 2025) → sold $1.6M
4242 N SACRAMENTO AVE, Chicago 60618
Street View Sep 2024 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$1.1M gross · bought $555,000 (Jan 2025) → sold $1.7M
3305 W WRIGHTWOOD AVE, Chicago 60647
Street View Aug 2025 — during the flip
$1.1M gross · bought $500,000 (Feb 2025) → sold $1.6M
396 S PROSPECT AVE, Elmhurst 60126
Street View Oct 2018 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$1.1M gross · bought $665,000 (Jun 2025) → sold $1.7M
5725 N RIDGE AVE # 2, Chicago 60660
Street View Oct 2024 — before the flip (pre-renovation)
$919,000 gross · bought $660,000 (Aug 2025) → sold $1.6M
2125 W WALTON ST # 1, Chicago 60622
Street View Aug 2025 — during the flip
Flip Structure — Year over Year
How the flip market itself is changing: margins, who is doing the flipping, what they flip, and where. Same two calendar months, this year vs last, from the current data extract.
| Flip market structure | Same months last year | This edition |
|---|---|---|
| Flips sold | 922 | 534 |
| Median sale | $316,036 | $334,602 |
| Median $/sqft | $229 | $237 |
| Sale vs county-assessed | 1.45× | 1.56× |
| Median gross margin (matched buys) | $140,000 | $153,667 |
| Median margin % | 78% | 85% |
| Median hold | 7.8 mo | 6.8 mo |
| Homes bought by flippers | 1,243 | 938 |
| Net to inventory (bought − sold) | +321 | +404 |
| Active flippers | 681 | 377 |
| Top-10 flippers' revenue share | 11% | 19% |
| Median house: sqft / beds / built | 1423 / 3 / 1958 | 1400 / 3 / 1956 |
| Pre-1950 stock share | 34% | 37% |
| 2–4 unit share | 1% | 1% |
| Median distance from downtown | 32.1 km | 27.1 km |
Homes bought counts every deed recorded to a known flipper in the window, resold or not. Net to inventory is that minus flips sold. The standing stock is in the Flip Pipeline section.
Attributed profit per flip (per-investor aggregates, by drop period): Feb 26→Jun 26: 2,191 flips, $136,772/flip · Jun 26→Aug 26: 813 flips, $69,619/flip.
County mix (share of flips, last year → this edition): Cook 58%→66% · DuPage 10%→9% · Lake (IN) 10%→9% · Will 5%→4% · Kane 3%→4% · Lake (IL) 6%→4% · Porter 3%→1% · McHenry 2%→1% · Kendall 2%→1% · DeKalb 0%→0% · Jasper 0%→0%.
Flip Pipeline — Buying, Selling and Inventory
Homes bought by known flippers and homes they resold, per month, alongside the stock sitting in flipper hands. A house enters inventory when a flipper buys it and leaves on the next recorded sale, at any price. Purchases still unsold after five years are treated as holds and drop out.
Solid = recorded, dashed = projected. Green bars are inventory on the right axis: homes bought and not yet resold. Aged out is purchases passing five years unsold. Inventory moves by bought minus resold minus aged out.
| Flip pipeline | Bought / mo | Resold / mo | Aged out / mo | Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latest recorded month (2026-05) | 551 | 454 | 229 | 15,507 |
| Projected (2026-11) | 431 | 398 | 249 | 15,200 |
Method: a straight-line trend through the last 24 months, adjusted for the month of the year, shown dashed as a projection. The series stops before the newest month or two, where deeds are still recording.
Who's Funding the Deals
First mortgages open on flipper purchases from Jul 2025 – Jun 2026 that have not yet resold. 60% carried recorded debt; the rest closed cash or off-record. Ranked by deal count.
60%
2,641 of 4,401 flipper purchases carried a recorded first mortgage
$216,000
median 0.97× the purchase price
40%
1,053 of 2,641 loans exceed the purchase price, so the lender is covering work as well as the buy
| Lender | Loans | Borrowers | Median loan | Loan vs price | Funds rehab | Median purchase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiavi Funding INC | 142 | 59 | $231,200 | 1.29× | 87% | $167,295 |
| RFLF 4 LLC | 105 | 49 | $262,500 | 1.29× | 82% | $214,000 |
| Loan Funder LLC | 102 | 65 | $228,125 | 1.31× | 85% | $182,500 |
| Jpmorgan Chase Bank NA | 92 | 84 | $195,750 | 0.75× | 10% | $265,000 |
| Guaranteed Rate INC | 69 | 66 | $279,000 | 0.90× | 10% | $330,000 |
| Wells Fargo Bank NA | 48 | 41 | $171,102 | 0.84× | 33% | $205,000 |
| United Wholesale Mortgage LLC | 44 | 40 | $315,125 | 0.97× | 9% | $333,500 |
| Neighborhood Loans INC | 39 | 38 | $306,440 | 0.95× | 3% | $325,000 |
| Loandepot.com LLC | 38 | 35 | $223,379 | 0.95× | 16% | $250,450 |
| Crosscountry Mortgage LLC | 36 | 33 | $315,430 | 0.89× | 11% | $385,000 |
Rates and terms are not published: the county feed models both. Borrowers counts the distinct flippers on each lender's book. Loan vs price is the recorded first mortgage divided by what the buyer paid. Above 1.00x the lender is funding purchase plus rehab; below it the buyer brought cash to the table. Blanket mortgages covering several parcels are excluded, as are loans outside 0.1x-3x the price. Rates and points are not public record.
Flipper Profile — The Working Flipper
The 70th–90th percentile of local flippers by lifetime flip count — the established operators below the whales: 3–8 lifetime flips each. Bath counts are not in the assessor extract.
1,390
each with 3–8 lifetime flips (avg 4.1)
$103,500
10,092 flips matched to their purchase price
5.8 mo
purchase to resale, matched deals
1419 sqft · 3 bd
median year built 1960
Where they work: Roseland (60628) 2% · Auburn Gresham (60620) 2% · Elmhurst (60126) 2% · South Chicago (60617) 2% · Chatham (60619) 1%.
Market Pulse
| per month, Feb–Jun 2026 | per month, Jun–Aug 2026 | change | avg/mo 2yr | avg/mo 4yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▼ Homes bought by flippers | 622 | 469 | -25% | 588 | 642 |
| ▼ Flips sold (deeds) | 461 | 267 | -42% | 502 | 524 |
| ▲ Lending deals funded | 67 | 251 | +275% | — | — |
| ▲ Seller/notes held (net) | 30 | 249 | +219/mo | — | — |
| ▼ Investors (net) | 943 | -8,850 | −9,792/mo | — | — |
Flips and flipper purchases = recorded deeds, same two months each year; their 2- and 4-year columns are per-month averages of the deed series. The remaining rows come from the investor file, which spans 13 months, so they have no multi-year average (2026: Jun 2026 → Aug 2026; 2025: Feb 2026 → Jun 2026).
Past Issues
Methodology
Source Data
Every figure is computed from recorded instruments (deeds, mortgages, assignments) and assessor property records for the five counties of the Chicago-Elyria MSA. No surveys, no estimates, no listings data.
This edition analyzes transactions dated May 1 – June 30, 2026, as recorded through the 2026-08 data extract.
Who Counts as an Investor
Investors are entities whose recorded transaction history looks like investing: rental holding (landlords), short-hold resales (flippers), private mortgage lending, note holding, or contract assignment (wholesalers). Banks, homebuilders, iBuyers, SFR funds, and government entities are identified by name and reported separately from small investors.
How Comparisons Work
The Market Pulse reports activity attributed between successive data drops, from the per-investor lifetime totals maintained upstream — periods differ in length, so per-month rates are shown. Elsewhere, "vs. year ago" compares the same calendar months one year earlier, counted from the same data extract. Transfers under $5,000 (quitclaims, partial interests) are excluded everywhere. Counts lag recording by 4–8 weeks, and the newest month can grow up to ~15% as late records arrive — direction is reliable before magnitude.
Known Limits
Wholesale assignments only appear when they touch a recorded deed, so those counts are a floor. Flip hold times are measured from the prior recorded sale. Names are the owner of record, which may be an LLC or trust.
About
Purpose
A working tool for small real estate investors in Greater Chicago: what actually closed, where, at what prices, and what it suggests checking next — one theme per issue.
Cadence
Published with each bi-monthly data drop, covering the two most recent complete months of recorded activity.
Disclaimer
Observations from public records, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Past activity does not guarantee future results. Verify any property or counterparty independently before transacting.