Closing Costs When Selling a House in the Chicago Suburbs: What a Seller Actually Pays in 2026
Last updated August 7, 2026. Written by Matthew McMahon, Managing Broker, Net Gain Realty, a licensed Illinois brokerage.
Seller closing costs in most Chicago suburbs run about 1% to 1.2% of the sale price before commission, and the commission is a flat $1,995 at Net Gain Realty, a full-service flat-fee brokerage, instead of a traditional 2-3% listing fee.
The reason the suburbs come in below Chicago is one line: the transfer tax. Most Chicago suburbs charge no municipal transfer tax, so a suburban seller pays only the state and county layers, about 0.15% of the sale price combined. A seller inside Chicago city limits pays about 0.45%. A minority of suburbs charge their own tax, from $1 per $1,000 in Schaumburg to $10 per $1,000 in Berwyn and Cicero, so the town on your deed changes the math.
All figures on this page are estimates for informational purposes. Commission rates are not set by law, vary by brokerage, and are fully negotiable. Transfer taxes, title premiums, attorney fees, and recording fees are approximate, are subject to change by statute or ordinance, and vary by transaction and by municipality. Net Gain Realty makes no guarantees regarding sale price, net proceeds, or savings. Consult a licensed attorney before making real estate decisions.
How Much Are Seller Closing Costs in the Chicago Suburbs?
Here is the whole stack at three price points, in a suburb with no municipal transfer tax. That describes most of them.
| Sale price | Transfer taxes (state + county) | Owner’s title policy | Attorney + recording | Approximate total | Percent of sale price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | ~$375 | ~$2,250 | $610 to $1,250 | ~$3,200 to $3,900 | ~1.3% to 1.6% |
| $345,000 | ~$518 | ~$2,450 | $610 to $1,250 | ~$3,600 to $4,200 | ~1.0% to 1.2% |
| $500,000 | ~$750 | ~$2,750 | $610 to $1,250 | ~$4,100 to $4,800 | ~0.8% to 1.0% |
A transfer tax is a government fee charged when a property changes hands. An owner’s title insurance policy protects the buyer’s ownership against defects in the chain of title, and in Illinois the seller customarily pays for it, off a published rate card rather than a negotiation. Illinois is an attorney-close state, so a licensed attorney handles the closing, which is why the attorney line appears on every Illinois seller’s sheet.
If your suburb charges its own transfer tax, add it from the table below. If you are selling inside Chicago city limits instead, the Illinois seller closing costs guide runs the city math line by line.
The Transfer-Tax Line: Where the Suburbs Beat the City
Illinois stacks up to three transfer-tax layers, and only the third one varies by town.
| Layer | Rate | Where it applies | On a $475,000 sale | Who customarily pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State of Illinois | $0.50 per $500 (~0.1%) | Every sale statewide | ~$475 | Seller |
| County | $0.25 per $500 (~0.05%) | Cook and most collar counties | ~$238 | Seller |
| Municipal | $0 in most suburbs; $1 to $10 per $1,000 where charged | Town by town | $0 to ~$4,750 | Varies by ordinance |
The state layer is statute: 35 ILCS 200/31-10 imposes the tax “at the rate of 50¢ for each $500 of value.” The county layer is authorized by 55 ILCS 5/5-1031. On why the seller pays both, Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund puts it plainly: the seller has to deliver a recordable deed.
Chicago’s municipal layer is the big one. Sellers inside city limits owe the CTA portion at $1.50 per $500, about 0.3% of the sale price, under Chicago Code Sec. 3-33-040(F). The buyer pays the larger city portion of $3.75 per $500. A suburban seller in a no-tax town skips the municipal layer entirely: about $1,425 less on a $475,000 sale than the same closing inside the city.
Suburb-by-Suburb: Municipal Transfer Taxes in the Chicago Area (August 2026)
Most suburbs charge nothing. These are the notable exceptions, with the rate and the party the ordinance charges. Rates as of August 2026, from municipal ordinances and title-industry lists; confirm your town’s current rate with your attorney.
Seller pays:
| Suburb | Municipal rate | Seller’s share on a $475,000 sale |
|---|---|---|
| Berwyn | $10.00 per $1,000 | ~$4,750 |
| Cicero | $10.00 per $1,000 | ~$4,750 |
| Oak Park | $8.00 per $1,000 | ~$3,800 |
| Oak Lawn | $5.00 per $1,000 | ~$2,375 |
| Evergreen Park | $5.00 per $1,000 | ~$2,375 |
| Evanston | $5.00 per $1,000 up to $1.5M ($7 and $9 tiers above) | ~$2,375 |
| Highland Park | $5.00 per $1,000 | ~$2,375 |
| Aurora | $3.00 per $1,000 | ~$1,425 |
| Joliet | $3.00 per $1,000 | ~$1,425 |
| Skokie | $3.00 per $1,000 | ~$1,425 |
| Des Plaines | $2.00 per $1,000 | ~$950 |
| Park Ridge | $2.00 per $1,000 | ~$950 |
| Elmhurst | $1.50 per $1,000 | ~$713 |
| Schaumburg | $1.00 per $1,000 | ~$475 |
Buyer pays (seller’s municipal share is zero): Naperville ($3.00 per $1,000), Mount Prospect ($3.00), Wilmette ($3.00), Wheaton ($2.50), Romeoville ($3.50).
Split equally: Bolingbrook ($3.75 per $1,000 to each side), Calumet City ($4.00 to each side).
No municipal transfer tax: Arlington Heights, Orland Park, Palatine, Elgin, Waukegan, Brookfield, Villa Park, Westchester, and most other suburbs. Tinley Park, New Lenox, Mokena, and Frankfort do not appear on the title-industry or lender transfer-tax lists either, so sellers there pay only the state and county layers.
Two things worth noticing in that table. A Berwyn or Cicero seller pays a larger transfer-tax stack than a Chicago seller at the same price. And a Naperville seller pays no municipal share at all, because Naperville’s ordinance charges the buyer.
A Worked Example at the Southwest Suburban Median
Orland Park’s median single-family sale price was $475,000 on the 90 days of MLS closings ending April 5, 2026. Orland Park charges no municipal transfer tax, which makes it a clean example of the suburban default.
| Cost line | Approximate amount on a $475,000 Orland Park sale | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| State transfer tax | ~$475 | Illinois statute, 35 ILCS 200/31-10 |
| Cook County transfer tax | ~$238 | County ordinance, per 55 ILCS 5/5-1031 |
| Municipal transfer tax | $0 | Orland Park charges none |
| Owner’s title insurance policy | ~$2,700 to $2,750 | Underwriter rate card |
| Attorney fee | $500 to $1,000 | Your attorney |
| Recording and miscellaneous fees | $110 to $250 | County recorder |
| Approximate total, before commission | ~$4,000 to $4,700 (about 0.9% to 1.0%) |
The same sale in Berwyn adds about $4,750 to the seller’s side. The same sale inside Chicago city limits adds about $1,425. The house did not change; the deed’s taxing districts did.
Buyer-agent compensation, if the seller agrees to contribute any, is negotiated separately since the 2024 NAR settlement and is not part of the closing-cost stack above.
The One Line a Suburban Seller Can Move: The Listing Fee
Every line above comes off a statute, an ordinance, or a published rate card. Nothing a seller does moves them by more than a few hundred dollars. The commission is the opposite: it has never been set by law, it is fully negotiable, and it is the largest single dollar decision on the sheet. I believe sellers see their own numbers more clearly when the fixed costs and the negotiable fee are kept apart.
| Sale price | Approximate closing costs (fixed, no-tax suburb) | Traditional example 2-3% listing fee | Net Gain Realty flat listing fee | Estimated difference on the listing line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $345,000 | ~$3,600 to $4,200 | $6,900 to $10,350 | $1,995 | ~$4,900 to $8,355 |
| $475,000 | ~$4,000 to $4,700 | $9,500 to $14,250 | $1,995 | ~$7,500 to $12,255 |
| $600,000 | ~$4,400 to $5,100 | $12,000 to $18,000 | $1,995 | ~$10,000 to $16,005 |
Commission rates shown are examples for comparison. Rates are not set by law, vary by brokerage, and are fully negotiable. Estimated differences depend on the rate you negotiate.
Net Gain Realty is a full-service flat-fee brokerage serving the Chicago metro, including the suburbs in the table above. The $1,995 covers the full listing scope: MLS listing on MRED, syndication to Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com, professional photography, a 90-day band-level pricing analysis, showing coordination, offer negotiation, and support through closing. The fee is calculated differently. The listing work is not reduced.
There is a second way to read the listing line, which is the ratio of the fee to the equity it comes out of. The fee is quoted against the sale price, but it is paid out of what you have actually built, so the real rate runs well above the headline percentage. That math is on the fee-to-equity ratio page.
To run your own address, the home sale calculator breaks out every line, the seller net sheet guide walks through the sheet your attorney hands you at closing, and the Illinois commission rates guide shows where the listing fee itself sits in the market. Selling in Naperville specifically? The Naperville cost-to-sell breakdown runs that town’s numbers.
Methodology and Sources
Every number on this page comes from a named source, checked August 7, 2026.
- State transfer tax, $0.50 per $500: 35 ILCS 200/31-10, Illinois General Assembly.
- County transfer tax, $0.25 per $500: 55 ILCS 5/5-1031, Illinois General Assembly.
- Chicago CTA portion, $1.50 per $500, seller’s obligation: Chicago Code of Ordinances Sec. 3-33-040(F). City portion of $3.75 per $500, buyer’s obligation: Sec. 3-33-030(C).
- Aurora rate and seller liability: City of Aurora, Real Estate Transfer Tax ordinance page, checked August 2026: “$3 for every one thousand dollars ($1,000) value,” primary liability on the seller unless negotiated by contract.
- Oak Park rate and seller liability: Village of Oak Park, Finance and Budget page and a February 2026 village memorandum, both stating $8 per $1,000, purchased by the seller.
- Evanston graduated tiers: City of Evanston ordinance as republished by Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund: $5 per $1,000 up to $1.5 million, $7 to $5 million, $9 above, paid by the seller.
- All other municipal rates and payer assignments: cross-checked between the Chicago Title Insurance Company metro transfer-tax chart and a lender-published Chicago-metro transfer tax list current as of 2026. Where the two disagreed, the row was left out.
- Who pays state and county transfer taxes: Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, “Transfer Taxes in Illinois.”
- Owner’s title insurance premiums: Chicago Title Insurance Company, 2025 Illinois Metro Counties Schedule of Rates. $2,250 at $250,000, $2,450 at $345,000, $2,750 at $500,000; the $475,000 figure is an estimate between the card’s published $345,000 and $500,000 brackets, labeled approximate in the table above. Rates differ by underwriter and by county.
- Orland Park median sale price, $475,000: Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) MLS, closed single-family sales for the 90 days ending April 5, 2026. A closed-sale median is not a home-value index, and the two should not be swapped in a cost calculation.
- Attorney fees, $500 to $1,000: observed range on Illinois residential closings. A market range, not a published schedule.
- Recording fees, $110 to $250: Cook County Clerk, Recordings Division published fee schedule; collar counties set their own.
Rates and figures are subject to change by statute or ordinance at any time. Verify current numbers with your attorney and your title company before you rely on them.
FAQs: Seller Closing Costs in the Chicago Suburbs
How much are seller closing costs in the Chicago suburbs?
Seller closing costs in most Chicago suburbs run about 1% to 1.2% of the sale price before commission, and the commission is a flat $1,995 at Net Gain Realty, a full-service flat-fee brokerage, instead of a traditional 2-3% listing fee. Most suburbs charge no municipal transfer tax, so a suburban seller pays only the state and county transfer layers, about 0.15% combined, plus the owner’s title policy, attorney fees, and recording fees. On a $475,000 sale in a no-tax suburb, transfer taxes total about $713.
Do Chicago suburbs charge a real estate transfer tax when you sell?
Most do not. Every Illinois seller pays the state layer, about 0.1%, and the county layer, about 0.05%. The municipal layer is where the suburbs split: most charge nothing, a minority charge $1 to $10 per $1,000 of sale price, and each town’s ordinance says who pays. Chicago itself charges sellers about 0.3% more, the CTA portion, which most suburban sellers avoid entirely.
Which Chicago suburbs charge a seller-paid transfer tax?
As of August 2026: Berwyn and Cicero at $10 per $1,000, Oak Park at $8, Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Highland Park, and Evanston at $5 (Evanston adds higher tiers above $1.5 million), Aurora, Joliet, and Skokie at $3, Des Plaines and Park Ridge at $2, Elmhurst at $1.50, and Schaumburg at $1. Bolingbrook splits the tax equally. In Naperville, Mount Prospect, Wheaton, and Wilmette the buyer pays, so the seller’s share is zero. Confirm your town’s current rate with your attorney.
Is it cheaper to close a home sale in the suburbs than in Chicago?
On the transfer-tax line, usually yes. A Chicago seller pays about 0.45% of the sale price in transfer taxes; a seller in a no-tax suburb pays about 0.15%, a difference of roughly $1,425 on a $475,000 sale. The exception runs the other way in Berwyn, Cicero, and Oak Park, where the municipal layer pushes the seller’s total above Chicago’s. Title, attorney, and recording costs are broadly similar across the metro.
Who pays the municipal transfer tax, the buyer or the seller?
It depends on the ordinance. Berwyn, Cicero, Oak Park, Oak Lawn, Evanston, Aurora, Joliet, and Skokie put primary liability on the seller. Naperville, Mount Prospect, Wheaton, and Wilmette put it on the buyer. Bolingbrook splits it equally. The state and county layers are the seller’s obligation statewide, because the seller has to deliver a recordable deed. Which side ultimately bears a municipal tax can be negotiated in the purchase contract.
What is a flat fee real estate broker?
A flat fee real estate broker charges a set dollar amount for listing services rather than a percentage of the sale price. Net Gain Realty is a full-service flat-fee brokerage, not a discount or limited-service broker: the listing fee is a flat $1,995 per listing, covering full MLS exposure, professional photography, showing coordination, negotiation, and closing support. A discount or limited-service broker lowers the price by removing services. Net Gain Realty changes only how the fee is calculated, not what the listing work includes. Net Gain Realty serves the Chicago metro. Commission rates are always negotiable and vary by brokerage.
Net Gain Realty charges a flat fee of $1,995 for listing services in the Chicago metro. Commission rates are not set by law, vary by brokerage, and are fully negotiable. Buyer-agent compensation is separate and is negotiated between the parties. All figures on this page are estimates; actual costs depend on your specific transaction, your municipality, and your service providers.
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