In the first six months of 2026, sellers in Lincoln Park closed 609 single-family sales totaling $656.8 million in list-side volume. At an example 2.5% listing fee, the neighborhood’s estimated listing-fee bill for the half comes to $16.4 million.
Nobody publishes that number. Median prices, days on market, sale-to-list ratios, those are everywhere. The bill is not. So I computed it from closed MLS data, and I am going to keep computing it, neighborhood by neighborhood, every quarter. This is the first one.
The Lincoln Park commission bill, first half of 2026
| Segment | Closed sales | Closed volume | Average price | Estimated listing fees at example 2.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attached single-family | 529 | $441.1M | ~$834,000 | ~$11.0M |
| Detached single-family | 80 | $215.7M | ~$2.70M | ~$5.4M |
| All single-family | 609 | $656.8M | ~$1.08M | ~$16.4M |
Source: MRED MarketView, list-side closed sales, year to date ending June 2026. Detached figures computed by subtracting attached totals from the single-family total. Listing fees are estimated at an example 2.5% and are not reported actuals. Commission rates are negotiable and not set by law; actual rates vary by listing agreement.
Three times the fee, not three times the work
Look at the two rows above the total. The average attached home in Lincoln Park sold for about $834,000, which puts an example 2.5% listing fee near $20,800. The average detached house sold for about $2.7 million, which puts the same example fee near $67,400.
No two of those sales were the same. Each one needed its own pricing call, its own marketing, its own negotiation. That work is real, and it varies with the home and the deal, not with the price tag. The detached seller does not receive three times the marketing, three times the negotiation, or three times the hours. The fee tripled because the house costs more, not because the work grew.
Quoted on the price, paid from your equity
I believe that is the honest problem with the percentage structure. The fee tracks the price tag, not the work. And it is quoted against your sale price but paid out of your equity, the slice of the home that is actually yours, so the real rate on your own money is higher than the number on the listing agreement.
What the market did while those fees were earned
Here is the same neighborhood over the last 90 days, from the MLS data in the tool I built:
- 348 homes sold, median price $743,000
- Median time to contract: 5 days
- 0.6 months of supply
- Sold at 105% of asking on average, with 69% closing above list
- The $500K to $550K band was the hottest segment, at 110.5% of asking
What 0.6 months of supply means for the fee
In a market with 0.6 months of supply and a 5-day median to contract, demand is doing a large share of the selling. That is not an argument that listing a home is effortless. Pricing still decides outcomes here: the sellers who overpriced lost 27 extra days and cut an average of 4.1% before selling. It is an argument that the fee should reflect the work, and the work does not scale with the price of the house.
The counterfactual
Run the same 609 sales through a flat fee. At $1,995 per listing, the neighborhood’s listing bill for the half would have been about $1.2 million instead of an estimated $16.4 million. That is roughly $15.2 million that would have stayed in Lincoln Park sellers’ equity over six months, in one neighborhood.
For one seller at the 90-day median of $743,000: an example 2.5% listing fee is about $18,575. A flat fee is $1,995. Every other line on your closing statement, transfer taxes, title, attorney, prorations, is either set by law or confined to a narrow range. I broke down every one of those lines in what it costs to sell a 2-bed condo in Lincoln Park. The listing fee is the only major line that is negotiable, and the only one that can be flat.
Run your own numbers
See your own number, line by line. The Chicago seller net sheet builds your full estimated closing statement in your browser, the same sale shown two ways: an example 2.5% listing fee next to a flat $1,995.
If you want the full market picture for your block first, get a free Lincoln Park market report built from the same MLS data used in this post. And if you are getting ready to list, the Lincoln Park seller guide walks the whole process end to end.
Methodology: closed-sale counts and volume are list-side figures from MRED MarketView, year to date ending June 2026, single-family property class. The 90-day market statistics are from MLS data covering 348 Lincoln Park sales. The estimated commission bill applies an example 2.5% listing fee to closed volume; commissions are negotiable, are not set by law, and actual rates vary by agreement, so the true total may be higher or lower. All figures are estimates for illustration. Net Gain Realty is a licensed Illinois brokerage, #481.014232, and makes no guarantees regarding sale price, net proceeds, or savings.