Streeterville
Streeterville is older than its reputation suggests and more varied than its location implies. The neighborhood runs from the lakefront west toward Michigan Avenue, anchored at its southern end by Northwestern Memorial Hospital and a dense institutional presence that gives it a different daytime energy than purely residential neighborhoods. Along its northern edge, East Lake Shore Drive functions as its own distinct corridor — a stretch of pre-war architecture and deeply private co-op buildings that set the tone for what the Gold Coast becomes just north. Within that full range, the building stock spans decades — older lakefront highrises with floor plans you won't find in newer construction alongside more recent development that draws a different buyer entirely. Streeterville has long functioned as an entry point to the lakefront market for buyers who want the address without the New Eastside price point, and as a meaningful upper-end market for buyers who've decided the lake view is non-negotiable and have the budget to act on it.
Data current through Q2 2026 — updated quarterlyWhat this neighborhood is made of
About 84% of in-scope buildings are highrises, with a midrise component rounding out the rest. Looking at trailing two-year sales, 1-bedrooms lead transaction volume at 37%, followed by 2-bedrooms at 32% and 3-bedrooms at 19% — a 3-bedroom share that is notably high relative to other downtown neighborhoods and reflects a building stock with meaningful large-unit inventory. The studio segment is also significant at 10%, anchored by the substantial studio inventory in the neighborhood's highrise towers.
Sales in this neighborhood include a significant number of cooperative apartments (co-ops). Because co-op ownership has different monthly cost and pricing characteristics, co-ops are included in the Unit Mix and Market Activity but excluded from Monthly Cost to Own and Price Positioning.
↑ Back to topWhat you're writing a check for every month
| Unit size | Streeterville | Downtown | ↑/↓ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $1,798 | $1,807 | ↓ $9 |
| 1BR | $2,747 | $2,625 | ↑ $121 |
| 2BR | $5,302 | $4,209 | ↑ $1,093 |
| 3BR | $9,323 | $8,256 | ↑ $1,067 |
| 4BR+ | $13,781 | $11,910 | ↑ $1,871 |
Streeterville leans toward one- and three-bedrooms, which leaves genuine two-bedrooms relatively scarce — and that scarcity shows. Two-bedroom costs rose sharply on a 15.3% price gain over the past year, continuing a climb that's been building for a while. For sellers of two-bedrooms, that shortage is a lasting advantage; for buyers, it means the hardest size to find is also the one rising quickest, and waiting has come at a real cost over the past year.
One-bedrooms went the other way, slipping about 2% in both price and monthly cost. It's a small dip, not a slowing market: one-bedrooms still sold in about 33 days, roughly the same as a year earlier, so homes are moving at the same pace for a little less money. Buyers at the entry sizes have slightly more negotiating room than a year earlier, and sellers can still count on a quick sale, just at a slightly softer price.
What's selling and how Streeterville compares
| Unit size | #Sold | Share of Downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 143 | 36% |
| 1BR | 551 | 18% |
| 2BR | 466 | 13% |
| 3BR | 274 | 20% |
| 4BR+ | 47 | 20% |
| All units | 1,481 | 17% |
Streeterville generated 17.4% of all downtown closings in the trailing two years — 1,481 transactions. The studio segment remains the neighborhood's most distinctive data point: 143 closings represent 36.2% of all downtown studio sales, the highest share of any neighborhood. The 3-bedroom segment holds at 274 closings — 20.0% of all downtown 3-bedroom sales, keeping pace with, though still trailing, Gold Coast's long-held dominance in that size.
The 2-bedroom segment at 466 closings is active in absolute terms, but its 13.2% share of downtown 2-bedroom sales is modest relative to the neighborhood's overall transaction share. That reflects the building stock: Streeterville's larger 2-bedroom floor plans mean fewer of them relative to 1-bedrooms and 3-bedrooms. For sellers of 2-bedrooms here, that relative scarcity is a structural advantage.
What's happening with values here
Streeterville's price per square foot ticked up to about $388, from $382 the prior period — only about $8 a foot above the $380 downtown median, close enough to be effectively the same. That at-market figure hides a building stock weighted toward one- and three-bedrooms, with true two-bedrooms genuinely scarce, so per-foot pricing varies more by unit type here than a single blended number can show. The figure itself barely moved against downtown this period.
Median Sale Price by unit size
| Unit size | Median Sale Price | vs. Downtown | Price Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $200,000 | → | ↑ 2.6% |
| 1BR | $300,000 | ↑ 2% | ↓ 1.9% |
| 2BR | $622,500 | ↑ 26% | ↑ 15.3% |
| 3BR | $1,125,000 | ↑ 13% | ↑ 8.7% |
| 4BR+ | $1,610,000 | ↑ 10% | ↓ 5.3% |
Elsewhere the picture is calmer. Three-bedrooms rose 8.7%, but about in line with lakefront neighbors, so the neighborhood held its place rather than gaining ground. One-bedrooms slipped roughly 2% — the most affordable one-bedrooms on the lakefront — and since they still sold about as quickly as before, that reads as a small price dip, not weak demand. Four-bedroom-plus edged down on very few sales, too thin to read much into. The two-bedroom is where Streeterville's real story sits.
What this data can't tell you
Everything above is aggregate data, and aggregate data has a ceiling. It can tell you where Streeterville sits relative to the rest of downtown, how its pricing has moved, what carrying costs look like across the building stock. It cannot tell you whether a specific building is well-governed, whether its reserves are adequate, whether its amenity spend is efficient, or whether a particular floor plan holds value the way the building's median suggests it should.
Those questions don't resolve at the neighborhood level. They resolve at the building level — and in some cases, only in conversation.