Demand Extends Chicago-Area Hot Streak Beyond Winnetka

A Kenilworth home a few blocks from the beach approached the high watermark for non-lakefront sales in the village, days after another property set a likely record for inland sales in Kenilworth.

The house at 207 Cumberland Avenue sold for $5.9 million Tuesday, according to a social media post from listing agent Jena Radnay. The nine bedroom, nine-and-a-half bathroom house is situated a short walk from the beach on the north end of Kenilworth. It spans 9,600 square feet and sits on a 0.76-acre lot.

The price pencils out to $615 per square foot.

The sale followed a $6.1 million deal last week for a gutted and modernized historic house on Kenilworth Road. That transaction, brokered by @properties’ John Mawicke, appears to be the most-expensive non-lakefront home sale in the village in several years, and the Cumberland Avenue property is not far behind.

It went under contract a little more than a month after it was listed in July, reflecting high demand for luxury housing in the North Shore, even outside the top-tier lakefront properties.

“It just shows you that the values are very high for a 3,000-resident village,” Radnay told The Real Deal.

Radnay, an @properties agent and major broker for North Shore lakefront properties, said she’s seeing interest from buyers in Chicago and out of town who want to move to the North Shore. With inventory in such short supply, buyers are turning their attention from the most-expensive cities like Winnetka and bringing more competition into Kenilworth.

The Cumberland Avenue house last sold in 2013 for $4.2 million. The house was owned under a land trust that obscures the owner’s identity, but property tax bills were addressed to Jason Hanold, according to public records, which indicate the previous owners paid $74,000 in property taxes in 2023.

The property was listed in July for $6.5 million. Sale records that might identify the buyers are not yet available.

Radnay has another Kenilworth listing, a lakeshore property on Sheridan Road, asking $15 million that is under contract. That asking price would break the village record for a lakefront property of $11.75 million set in 2020, but the final sale price is not yet known. Radnay said she expects the deal to close by the end of the year.

In September, a lakefront Kenilworth mansion that was expected to be a teardown sold for $6.8 million to developer Leo Birov of Heritage Luxury Homes. Birov is marketing a $6 million spec mansion on part of the site, and it’s likely another new construction is in the works for the other portion of the property.

The recent sales show the hot streak for North Shore luxury properties isn’t slowing down.

A few dozen homes have sold for more than $4 million along the North Shore this year, with Winnetka leading the pack in luxury deals. A 13,900 square-foot mansion previously owned by a former Goldman Sachs executive — also listed by Radnay — sold in September for $31.3 million, the highest Chicagoland home resale price ever recorded.

The lack of inventory is driving competition, Radnay said.

Like the house on Cumberland Avenue, many luxury properties that recently sold or have pending contracts in the North Shore have gone under contract in a matter of weeks, in some cases within a few days.

“Until our inventory changes, we’re going to be staying at this exact same temperature for a while,” Radnay said.