Communities · North Shore
Wilmette Real Estate
A lakefront village about fourteen miles north of the Loop, with both Metra and the CTA running into the city. Here's what housing costs, how the commute works, and where the market landed in 2025.
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Wilmette was incorporated in 1872 and takes its name from the Ouilmette family: Antoine Ouilmette, a French-Canadian fur trader, and Archange Chevalier Ouilmette, a Potawatomi woman who received 1,280 acres here under the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien. Today the village runs from the Lake Michigan shoreline west past the Edens Expressway, with Gillson Park and the harbor on the lake, the Bahá'í House of Worship on Sheridan Road, and a downtown that sits around the Metra station.
Architecture ranges widely. The Frank J. Baker House on Lake Avenue, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1909, is a private residence. Much of west Wilmette was built after the Second World War, with many homes there dating from the 1940s through the 1960s. Along the lake, Sheridan Road accounts for the largest share of Wilmette's condominium sales: 39 of the 96 condominium and townhouse sales in 2025 were in Sheridan Road buildings.
It is a larger market than most North Shore villages: around 400 homes change hands in a typical year, about a quarter of them condominiums and townhouses. The snapshot below is the full 2025 closed record, not a sample.
2020 Census and 2020–2024 American Community Survey (5-year estimates). Average household income is the ACS mean.
The market in brief
What Wilmette housing costs
Every closed sale recorded in Wilmette in 2025: detached houses, townhouses and condominiums. Vacant land and one multi-unit building excluded.
Source: MRED closed sales, January–December 2025. Current as of the 2025 year end.
With about four hundred sales a year, Wilmette figures are steadier than in the smaller lakefront villages, but the mix still matters: a quarter of sales are condominiums and townhouses, about four in ten of them in Sheridan Road buildings. The typical detached house sold in 2025 was built around 1952, and 38% were built before 1940. For this month's prices, supply, showing activity and the age of homes selling now, and what they mean for buyers and sellers, use the market statistics page.
Wilmette market statistics
Current price, inventory, months of supply and showings, with live MRED charts and a plain-language read of what changed.
See the Market StatisticsThe best month to sell in Wilmette
1,103 Wilmette houses that went under contract from 2023 to 2026, sorted by the month they were listed.
Read the StudySchools
Three elementary districts, then New Trier
Most of Wilmette is served by Wilmette Public Schools District 39. Its four elementary schools, Central, Harper, McKenzie and Romona, serve kindergarten through fourth grade, and each home is assigned to one of them by address. In the district's own description, Central serves the east side, McKenzie the central section, Harper the north and Romona the west. District 39 students then attend Highcrest Middle School (grades 5–6) and Wilmette Junior High School (grades 7–8). District 39 also runs an early-education program for three- and four-year-olds at Romona School.
Part of west Wilmette is served by Avoca School District 37 (Avoca West, kindergarten through fifth grade, then Marie Murphy School, grades 6–8), and a small area by Kenilworth School District 38 (The Joseph Sears School, kindergarten through eighth grade, in Kenilworth).
All three districts are sender districts to New Trier Township High School District 203: first-year students attend the Northfield Campus, and grades 10–12 the Winnetka Campus. District-level results are on the Illinois Report Card for District 39, District 37, District 38 and New Trier.
Private options in the village include two high schools, Loyola Academy and Regina Dominican High School, and Baker Demonstration School, which runs from early childhood through middle school.
For more detail: residency requirements for District 39, preschools in Wilmette and public and private elementary schools in Wilmette.
In Wilmette, the elementary school follows the address. Check it before you write an offer.
District 39 assigns its four K–4 schools by attendance boundary, and parts of west Wilmette are in a different district altogether. Boundaries can change, so confirm current attendance for a specific address with the district before you buy. Our Search by Elementary School tool helps you narrow the search first.
Getting to the city
The Wilmette commute
The Wilmette Metra station is on Green Bay Road at the edge of downtown, on the Union Pacific North line. Depending on the train, scheduled service from Wilmette to Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago is approximately 33–36 minutes. Most trains take 36 minutes. Five weekday-morning trains skip several stops and run in about 33. Weekend trains are scheduled at 36 minutes.
Wilmette is also the northern end of the CTA Purple Line. Linden station, at 4th Street and Linden Avenue, runs local service to Howard every day, and weekday express trains to the Loop during the morning and evening rush. Pace buses connect at Linden. By car, the Edens Expressway runs along the village's west side, and downtown Chicago is roughly 14 miles away.
Outside
The lakefront, pools, rinks and a public course
The Wilmette Park District maintains 314 acres of parks, including about 2.5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline at Gillson Park.
Gillson Park, about 60 acres on the lake, holds the main swimming beach, a sailing beach with kayak, paddleboard and sailboat rentals, a dog beach, Lakeview Center and the Wallace Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater that hosts free summer concerts. Gillson Park and Wilmette Harbor were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. Farther south, Langdon Beach reopened in June 2025 after a shoreline protection project.
The Centennial Recreation Complex on Old Glenview Road combines an outdoor aquatic center, two indoor ice rinks and an eight-court indoor tennis club. On the west side, the Wilmette Golf Club is a public course the Park District has operated since 1972.
Landmarks and the arts
A temple, a theater and a history museum
The Bahá'í House of Worship, designed by Louis Bourgeois and completed in 1953, sits on Sheridan Road at Linden Avenue, and its Welcome Center is open to visitors daily. Downtown, the Wilmette Theatre on Central Avenue still screens films and hosts live events. The Wilmette History Museum on Ridge Road has free admission, and the Wilmette Public Library is on Wilmette Avenue.
Nearby: the Music Institute of Chicago has campuses in Winnetka and Evanston, the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts is a short drive into Skokie, and Ravinia is up the Union Pacific North line in Highland Park.
Downtown and around
A few Wilmette institutions
Wilmette's restaurants are spread across downtown, Green Bay Road, Plaza del Lago on Sheridan Road and the west side, so this is a sample, not a directory. For larger shopping trips, Edens Plaza on the west side of the village is home to Wayfair’s first large-format store, opened in 2024, and Old Orchard is just over the border in Skokie. Plaza del Lago, the century-old shopping center on Sheridan Road, has added a wave of new shops since its 2025 renovation. On Green Bay Road, Walker Bros. The Original Pancake House opened its first location in 1960, and Homer's Ice Cream has made its own ice cream since 1935. At Plaza del Lago, Convito Café & Market combines a café with prepared food to take home.
From mid-April through October, the Wilmette French Market runs on Saturday mornings just east of the Metra station, with produce, flowers and artisan food. In late summer the village closes downtown streets for the annual Wilmette Block Party.
Tools and resources
Built for how people actually buy here
Six things worth using before you write an offer in Wilmette.
Before it reaches the market
Coming Soon listings are marketed before their broader public-market launch, giving buyers an earlier opportunity to learn about a home. Buyers can express interest and make offers during this stage; whether a seller considers an offer before the broader launch is up to the seller. Compass Private Exclusives are not publicly marketed while they are offered as Private Exclusives; some later come to the open market. The two are different, and neither guarantees access to a particular home.
Search Coming Soon How Private Exclusives work →Search by elementary school
In Wilmette the elementary school follows the address. Start with homes listed by elementary school, then confirm the current boundary with the district.
Search NowWalk to train
Homes within genuine walking distance of the Wilmette Metra station, not "close-ish by car."
View HomesNew construction guide
Finishes, builder reputations and which locations hold value on the North Shore, Wilmette included.
View the ReportMarket Ready Concierge
Compass's current program for financing pre-sale preparation, through Notable. Fees and interest apply and approval isn't guaranteed. We'll walk you through whether it fits.
The Insider's Guide
Our own guide to the North Shore, Wilmette included: schools, commutes, taxes and what each town is actually like to live in. Free.
Get the GuideWorking with us
The 6-Point Strategic Buyer Program
What we actually do between "I like this house" and "here are the keys."
Pre-market access
We monitor multiple sources — including our professional networks, Top Agent Network, Compass Coming Soon and other permitted pre-market opportunities — so your search is not limited to active public listings.
Comprehensive value analysis
A detailed read on both comparable sales and current market conditions, so you know what a house is worth before you name a number.
Strategic negotiating
Lisa is a licensed attorney and former litigator. In multiple-offer situations, we focus on both price and the terms that can affect a seller's decision.
Extra intel
We vet every home and its location for flooding history, walkability, commuting and anything else that could affect your enjoyment or your resale. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but you'll go in informed.
Innovative techniques
When nothing on the market fits, we go looking. Handwritten notes to owners in the streets and buildings you want, and geographically targeted advertising to reach homeowners who are thinking about selling but haven't listed.
Local expertise
We live on the North Shore, drive these streets daily, sit on community boards and have children in local activities. That produces the kind of anecdotal knowledge that never makes it into a listing sheet — and it means we can preview homes quickly for busy or out-of-town buyers.
Thinking of selling
Four steps, in order
- Start with the online estimate — it shows recent closed prices for homes near yours.
- Then get a real price analysis — a strategic, complimentary read on your specific house, which is a different thing from an algorithm's guess.
- Look at whether Market Ready Concierge or a private launch helps — financing for pre-sale work (fees and interest apply), or testing the market before the clock starts.
- Then go to market — photography, staging and a launch timed to the week that suits your house, not the calendar.
New on the market
New Wilmette listings added in the past 7 days
Residential listings added in the past 7 days · $100K–$15M · with photos
Listings courtesy of Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC (MRED) as distributed by MLS GRID. IDX information is provided exclusively for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Some listings have been excluded from this website. Full disclosures
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