Cash-buyer and investment activity over the last 12 months.
Data last updated
In Lake County, investors own about 2,089 tracked properties across 185 active buyers, with a median investor purchase price near $189,000. 232 were acquired in the last 12 months.
Lake County has 185 active cash buyers holding roughly 2,089 properties. Over the last 12 months they averaged under 1.3 purchases each, so the buyer pool is broad rather than concentrated: more names to work, with fewer deals riding on any single relationship.
Acquisition pace is cooling. Investors bought 232 properties in the last 12 months against roughly 762 the year before — down about 70%. Fewer buyers are competing per deal, which usually means more room to negotiate but a longer search for the right one.
The median investor purchase lands near $189,000. The average of $449,000 sits well above that median, which means a tail of higher-priced deals is pulling the mean up — most activity is happening below the average, and pricing a deal off the median is the safer read.
The dominant play is value-add / rehab, at 73.3% of tracked activity. That favors sellers bringing renovation projects: the capital in this market is set up to take on work, not to avoid it.
The median investor-owned home was built around 1958. About 73.3% predates 1980, so lead-paint disclosure, older systems and heavier rehab budgets are normal here.
Activity is not spread evenly. ZIP 60002, 60099 and 60085 are absorbing the most investor purchases in Lake County, and they are the fastest place to start if you are building a buyer list from scratch before working outward through the rest of the county.
Figures describe recorded investor purchases in this county and are refreshed as new records are processed. They describe past activity and are not a forecast or investment advice.