Fox Valley Real Estate: Week of August 31 – September 4, 2026
Rates went the wrong direction this week. Freddie Mac’s 30-year average moved from 6.66% to 6.71%, so nothing got easier for buyers on the margin. Almost every other story out here was about supply — new subdivisions in five towns, data-center campuses in three, and a downtown redevelopment plan in Batavia that just fell apart. Here is the town-by-town read.
Aurora
The city’s data-center zoning change goes to the planning commission this fall. As drafted, it allows the campuses in medium-industrial and business-technology districts while keeping them out of mixed-use and institutional areas near schools and assisted living — a follow-on to the restrictions Aurora passed in March. On the residential side, JLL Capital Markets arranged joint-venture equity plus a $70 million construction and pre-development loan for Aurora Oaks, a 1,096-unit project from Calibrex Developments that broke ground in July. Median list ran around $415,000 at roughly 30 days on market (per Movoto).
Aurora is adding units faster than the Tri-Cities are. If you plan to sell here in the next couple of years, some of your competition will be new, not resale. No standalone West Aurora news surfaced this week.
North Aurora
Silverthorne Homes opened presale pricing on Silverleaf, a 99-home development first announced in July. Townwide, roughly 429 homes are under construction, with a new-build average near $452,000 and entry pricing from the low $230,000s (per Coldwell Banker). Resale has been running near a $468,000 median at about 24 days. For buyers priced out of Geneva or Batavia, that low-$230,000s entry point is the practical alternative in the Tri-Cities’ orbit.
Batavia
The most consequential item here was a plan ending, not starting: Shodeen’s One Washington Place mixed-use proposal was terminated. That corner is back in play, and it joins four other city-owned downtown parcels plus an RFP out on a 0.68-acre North River Street lot. Downtown Batavia’s next decade is genuinely unsettled right now, which is unusual and worth watching if you own nearby.
The market read depends on which cut you take: roughly a $479,000 median sale with about four offers and low-40s days on market (per Kombrink), against a $524,000 median list with 17 sales in the last 30 days (per Movoto). List and sale are different measures, so I would not read the gap as a price drop.
Geneva
Geneva is the number I would want to understand before pricing anything. The June median sale was $551,700, up 1.2% year over year, with around five offers per home and under a month of supply (per Kombrink and Redfin). At the same time, Movoto’s median list price has been running near $547,000 and down 8 to 9% year over year. Both can be true — list price reflects what is currently for sale, and a shift toward lower-priced inventory pulls it down without values falling. Still, it is the softest read in the Tri-Cities, and I would want another month before drawing a conclusion.
Sugar Grove
The Grove keeps moving: 760 acres at I-88 and Route 47, roughly 1,400 homes at full buildout, with Area 1’s 214 single-family homes on Merrill Road under construction and first completions expected this year. The caveat has not changed. The 323-acre Grove Park portion has a data center under contract, the village is separately weighing tighter data-center rules, and the pushback on traffic and water is organized. If you are buying near that interchange, pull the current campus maps before you write an offer.
Naperville
Steady, and still tight. Zillow has the average value at $636,281, up 4.4% year over year; the median sits around $590,000 with detached single-family closer to $700,000, selling at roughly 99.5% of list in about 43 days. Active supply is 344 detached homes, 108 townhomes and 71 condos, with the condo median near $254,000. One caveat: months of supply here has bounced between 0.6 and 1.3 across sources all month, so treat any single reading loosely.
Oswego
D.R. Horton’s Parksmith Run is under Planning and Zoning review — 107 acres, about 210 single-family homes, 76 townhomes and expanded commercial near Route 34. Park size versus density is the sticking point, which is a fair fight to have before approval rather than after. The village is also drafting a new Comprehensive Plan. For a town that has more than doubled in population since 2000, where that plan lands will decide a lot.
Yorkville
Yorkville remains the corridor’s data-center center of gravity. Project Cardinal (roughly 1,037 acres, CyrusOne) and Project Steel (540 acres, 24 buildings, more than 9 million square feet, Prologis, first phase around summer 2027) are approved, and the Pioneer proposal runs about 14 buildings and 17 million square feet. WSPY reported roughly $91 million tied across the agreements. Resident opposition has not quieted, and buyers near the affected subdivisions ask about it directly.
Underneath that, resale runs about 41 days with roughly two offers — single-family generally $375,000 to $420,000, townhomes and condos $290,000 to $340,000, plus about 48 new-construction listings near a $418,000 median. Yorkville medians genuinely conflict across sources, from $325,000 to $425,000 depending on who is counting, so treat any single figure as one source’s read.
County and rate backdrop
Kane County’s average home value is around $383,000, up about 4% year over year, with the median near $408,000 (per Zillow). Kendall County’s median sale is closer to $370,000, with days on market stretching. Freddie Mac put the 30-year fixed at 6.71% for the week ended Sept. 3, up from 6.66% and above 6.50% a year ago. Daily trackers sit higher — Mortgage News Daily’s index was near 6.91% on Sept. 2 — so know whether the rate you are quoting is a weekly average or a daily print. Fannie Mae has been forecasting closer to 6.4% by year end, which would matter here quickly given how little is for sale.
National watch
The Eighth Circuit affirmed $110.6 million in Gibson commission settlements on Sept. 1, covering nine brokerages including Compass, Redfin, Douglas Elliman and @properties’ parent. The panel rejected four objectors and leaned on its own Aug. 19 Sitzer/Burnett ruling. Combined, the commission cases now total roughly $1.018 billion cleared for distribution (per HousingWire, Inman and Real Estate News). Parties have until about Sept. 15 to seek rehearing.
Both sides are worth stating plainly. Supporters — including NAR and the settling brokerages, who are the defendants and have an obvious interest in a clean ending — argue the courts rejected the release and due-process challenges outright, that four years of uncertainty is over, and that the practice changes that came with it move the fee conversation to the front of the deal where it belongs. Critics, largely the objectors and plaintiffs’ lawyers from parallel cases, argue the releases swept in claims never actually litigated, that per-member payouts are small against the alleged overcharges, and that the visible result a year on is more paperwork at the tour stage without a measured drop in what consumers pay. My read: the ruling settled process, not whether anyone is better off. I would not take either side’s summary as the last word.
One more item reads like our corridor described in a paragraph. The Federal Reserve’s Sept. 2 Beige Book found U.S. activity up modestly, with residential construction declining on balance while nonresidential construction rose, and several districts noting the activity was concentrated in data-center projects. The connection to Yorkville and Sugar Grove is my interpretation, not the Fed’s — the Beige Book does not mention either town.
The bottom line
The week did not change the fundamentals: not enough inventory, rates in the high 6s, well-priced homes in the strong school towns still moving. What changed is that the pipeline got more specific — Silverleaf, Aurora Oaks, Parksmith Run, The Grove’s first completions — and the data-center question moved further into the category of things buyers ask about at a showing.
If you are weighing a move in any of these towns, I am happy to walk through what this week’s numbers mean for your situation.
Sources: Freddie Mac PMMS (Sept. 3, 2026); Federal Reserve Beige Book (Sept. 2, 2026); HousingWire, Inman and Real Estate News (Sept. 1–2, 2026); Kombrink, Redfin, Zillow, Movoto and Coldwell Banker market data; WSPY, Chicago Agent Magazine and municipal sources.