Jena Radnay’s 2025 may very well have been the best year ever for a real estate agent in the Chicago area. The @properties Christie’s associate racked up a whopping $392 million in residential sales to top our latest annual rankings of individual agents. To put into perspective just how extraordinary that figure is, consider that it beats the combined sales of the next three agents on the list. Driving Radnay’s big year were some megadeals: She handled seven of the area’s 10 priciest purchases, including two record-setting $30 million–plus mansions. “The stars don’t align like that all of the time,” she says.
Radnay had something of a home court advantage. Six of her top seven sales were in Winnetka, where she has been based since 2009; the other was in neighboring Kenilworth. What’s behind the North Shore’s heat-up? “It didn’t happen overnight,” Radnay says. The first factor was the pandemic, which increased demand for larger spaces. The second: a worry about what she calls “turbulence” in the city. “There’s a feeling of safety in the suburbs.” And the third: a lack of inventory. “All these events got layered on top of each other, and — bam! — out comes 2025.”
Those dynamics have made for an extremely competitive market, particularly at the high end. “Pricing has gotten really aggressive,” Radnay says. “Buyers are getting a bit desperate. They are feeling like there aren’t many options, so they’re overpaying. I have a lot of clients willing to pay an extra $250,000 over list price just to secure a deal.”
Though certainly not ideal for buyers, the situation has put more money in the pockets of agents. Cracking the top 100 in our latest rankings of individual agents required $25.4 million in sales — $1.3 million more than last year’s cutoff. It was a similar tale for real estate teams. In last year’s rankings, no team had sales over $300 million. This year, six did. Topping the team rankings for the second year in a row is the Hinsdale-based Dawn McKenna Group of Coldwell Banker, with $393 million.
Here are the full rankings:
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