Two condos in River North list at $455,000. Same square footage, same view tier, same year of construction. One will cost the buyer roughly what the listing suggests. The other will hand them a $22,000 special assessment inside eighteen months and a monthly HOA that climbs faster than the CPI. The difference is not in either MLS sheet. It sits on page four of a document most buyers do not read until their attorney review window is already ticking.
That document is the Section 22.1 disclosure packet, and in 2026 it is the single most important piece of paper in a Chicago condo transaction. The reserve fund line inside it is the number that separates the two buildings above.
The clock that changed in 2023
Illinois used to give condo associations thirty days to produce a 22.1 packet. That is no longer true. Under an amendment to Section 22.1 that went into effect on January 1, 2023, the association now only has 10 business days to provide the required information and documents to the unit owner. The fee an association can charge for producing it is capped at $375 under a 2022 change.
Ten business days sounds generous. It is not. A standard Multi-Board 6.1 contract in Illinois gives the buyer's attorney five business days to review association documents and terminate without penalty. If the seller waits until acceptance to request the packet, the buyer is often reviewing 200 pages of budgets, meeting minutes, and litigation summaries on the last business day of attorney review. Deals die there, or worse, close on assumptions that later prove wrong.
The buyers who avoid that outcome ask for the packet before they write the offer. The sellers who protect their contract order it two to six weeks before going active.
What the packet actually contains
The Illinois Condominium Property Act requires eight specific disclosures. The full statutory text lives at the Illinois General Assembly. In practice, three lines carry almost all the risk:
- Anticipated capital expenditures for the current and next two fiscal years. A statement of any capital expenditures anticipated by the unit owner's association within the current or succeeding two fiscal years. If a $1.2M facade tuckpointing project is on the twenty-four-month horizon and the reserve cannot cover it, that cost is coming out of owners' pockets as a special assessment.
- Reserve for replacement fund status. A statement of the status and amount of any reserve for replacement fund and any portion of such fund earmarked for any specified project by the Board of Managers.
- Pending suits. Construction defect, water intrusion, and Chapter 13 collection cases against the association can each affect financing eligibility and future assessments.
There is a quiet enforcement mechanism buried in this system that buyers rarely understand until they use it. A purchaser might be able to avoid a special assessment later levied to pay for a capital expenditure if the expenditure was not included in the 22.1 resale disclosure provided to the prospective purchaser. Omission is not a technicality. It is a legal shield if the disclosure was silent.
The reserve number, and how to read it
Every reserve study calculates a percent-funded figure. It compares what the association has in the bank to what the study says it should have based on the age and replacement cost of the roof, elevators, boilers, tuckpointing, windows, and common area systems. The industry consensus is unambiguous: the National Association of Realtors and most reserve planning professionals use 70% as the general benchmark for a well-funded association. Below 30% funded = red flag. This building may not have enough to cover major repairs without special assessments.
That single ratio does more predictive work than the sticker price. Consider the mechanism. When buildings don't have enough reserves and a major repair comes due, the association has two options: take out a loan, or charge every owner a special assessment. A loan raises monthly assessments to service the debt. A special assessment lands as a five-figure bill. Either way, the buyer of a unit in a 25%-funded building has bought a lower price and a much higher effective monthly cost. The buyer of a comparable unit in an 85%-funded building has bought predictability.
New construction has its own trap. Developers frequently set assessments below the actual cost of operating the building to make units more marketable. Once the developer turns control over to the homeowner-run association (typically after 75% of units are sold), assessments often jump 20-40% to cover real operating costs. If a building is 70% sold and the current assessment feels comfortable, model the number 25% higher before you sign anything.
The Cook County layer
Reserves and assessments do not exist in isolation. Cook County reassesses on a triennial cycle by triad, and the last cycle was rough on condo owners. Cook County property tax reassessments have triggered 20-40% increases for many condo owners. While purchase prices appear affordable compared to coastal markets, the true carrying cost tells a different story. The Assessor publishes a Housing Market Tracker that lets buyers see recent sales in the specific community area, which matters because the CCAO's valuation models follow the same sales.
The compounding matters too. The average HOA fee for a condo in Chicago is approximately $425 per month as of 2026. However, HOA fees increase an average of 6% per year, meaning today's $425/month fee will likely exceed $761/month within 10 years. Layer that onto a triennial tax bump, and the affordability picture at year five looks very different from the affordability picture at closing.
How this reads across the North Side
The city-level numbers hide the neighborhood story. Over the three months ending May 2026, Chicago home prices were up 6.3% compared to the same period last year, selling for a median price of $420K. According to InfoSparks data as of June 2026, the average sale price across all property types reached $455,000, reflecting a 4.6% year-over-year increase on the Near North Side, which covers River North, Streeterville, Gold Coast, and Old Town.
Building age is the variable to watch. Streeterville and Gold Coast are dense with towers built between the mid-1960s and the early 2000s that are now facing façade recertification, elevator modernization, and mechanical replacements simultaneously. West Loop and South Loop include both mid-2000s conversions and newer builds, which produces a wider spread of reserve quality. Lincoln Park has a heavy population of 1970s-through-1990s conversions of vintage buildings, where deferred masonry and roof work tends to surface as owner-turnover happens.
None of this shows up in the median. It shows up in the 22.1.
What to do with the packet once you have it
Request the reserve study, not just the summary. Read the funded-percent figure and the year the study was completed. No reserve study. A building without a recent reserve study (within 5 years) is flying blind on capital planning. This almost always leads to surprise special assessments. Cross-check anticipated capital expenditures against the last two years of board meeting minutes, which are usually included in the packet, because boards discuss projects before they formally approve them. If the minutes mention a bid that is missing from the anticipated-expenditures list, that is worth a question.
There is one more provision that catches buyers of distressed inventory off guard. Per Sec. 9(g) of the Act, the REO buyer may be obligated to pay up to six months of pre-foreclosure assessments and attorneys' fees. That obligation should appear in the disclosure. When it does not, the buyer often finds out at the paid-assessment letter stage, days from closing.
FAQ
Can a seller refuse to order the 22.1? The obligation to produce it belongs to the association, not the seller, but the seller is the one who requests it. Contract language typically requires the seller to apply within five business days of acceptance. A seller who drags their feet risks giving the buyer a clean termination right.
Does the packet trigger the attorney review clock? No. The attorney review clock runs from contract acceptance. The 22.1 review window runs separately, and in most Chicago-area contracts it gives the buyer a distinct right to cancel based on the packet contents.
Is a high monthly assessment a bad sign? Not necessarily. A building charging $700 a month that funds 25% of that into reserves and sits at 80% funded is healthier than a building charging $450 that funds 8% and sits at 22% funded. The allocation matters more than the headline number.
If you are looking at a Chicago condo this quarter and want a second read on the 22.1 packet before your attorney review window closes, the team at Phair-Hinton Group works through this analysis with clients across River North, Streeterville, Gold Coast, West Loop, and Lincoln Park every week. Let's get you home. Schedule a call to get started.
