Arlington Heights · Cook County · IL
Homes for sale in
Terramere.
- Active listings
- 0
- Median list
- $0
- Avg time on market
- 0 days
- Sold · last year
- 13
Active listings
0 homes on the market
No homes match these filters.
Beat the rest of the buyers
Be the first to know when a new Terramere home hits the market
Save the search and you will get a text and an email the moment a new listing matches. Most Terramere homes go under contract in the first week, the buyers who win are the ones who saw it first.
About the community
Big 1980s houses around a lake, with no association dues.
Terramere sits in the far northwest corner of Arlington Heights, roughly framed by Lake Cook Road on the north, Arlington Heights Road on the east, Wilke Road on the west, and the Nichols Road area on the south. It was built out from the late 1970s through the 1980s, and neighborhood profiles credit Kennedy Homes as the builder. The organizing feature is Lake Terramere, a lake at the center of the subdivision that also serves as a stormwater retention basin and is ringed by an Arlington Heights Park District park. The street pattern curves around the water rather than running through it, the canopy has had forty years to close in, and the houses were built large for their era, commonly four or five bedrooms with a basement.
At a glance
Lake Terramere Park
An Arlington Heights Park District park on the lake at the center of the neighborhood, with a playground, picnic tables and a 0.67 mile path around the water.
No mandatory HOA dues
Published subdivision data lists the association fee at zero. The lake and park are park district property, not a private lake association, so there is no assessment behind them.
Large 1980s homes
Roughly a dozen floor plans, typically four or five bedrooms with 2.5 to 3.5 baths, a basement and a two-car garage, generally about 2,000 to just over 4,000 sq ft.
District 21 and District 214
Cook County parcel records place Terramere in Wheeling CCSD 21 and Township High School District 214, not the District 25 most buyers assume for Arlington Heights.
Forest preserve across the road
Buffalo Creek Forest Preserve sits directly north across Lake Cook Road, 408 acres with roughly 5.5 miles of gravel trail around a reservoir.
Nickol Knoll Golf Club
The park district's nine-hole par-3 course on 56 acres, home to Payton's Hill, the slope Walter Payton used for off-season training.
Fishing yes, swimming no
The park district allows fishing from the shore of Lake Terramere and prohibits swimming. It is a retention basin, not a recreational swimming lake.
What’s close
Terramere occupies the northwest corner of Arlington Heights against the Lake County line, with Lake Cook Road as its northern edge and Arlington Heights Road and Wilke Road as the north-south arterials.
- Park
- Lake Terramere Park at 10 N. Kennicott Ave., with a 0.67 mile lake path, playground and picnic tables. Creekside Park adds tennis, pickleball, basketball and sand volleyball, and its path connects to the Lake Terramere lookout.
- Schools
- Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 for elementary and middle school and Township High School District 214 for high school. Published profiles name Longfellow Elementary, Cooper Middle School and Buffalo Grove High School. Confirm by address with the districts.
- Highway
- Lake Cook Road is the main east-west arterial at the north edge, with Route 53 a couple of miles west and I-90 reached south via Arlington Heights Road.
- Train
- Metra's Union Pacific Northwest line serves the Arlington Heights and Arlington Park stations, both roughly five miles south by car.
- Shopping
- Downtown Arlington Heights and Woodfield Mall are each roughly fifteen minutes, with Deer Park Town Center on Rand Road the nearest large open-air center to the northwest.
- Hospital
- Endeavor Health Northwest Community Hospital at 800 W. Central Rd. in Arlington Heights, roughly six miles south, with a 24-hour emergency department.
What it’s actually like to live here
Terramere is what a 1980s move-up subdivision looks like when it ages well. The homes were built big for their era, four and five bedrooms with basements, and a handful of custom homes on the lake carry walkout basements and three-car garages. Forty-plus years of tree growth have closed the canopy over streets like Whiting, Brampton and Kingsley, and the loop path around Lake Terramere functions as the neighborhood's front porch: dog walkers, strollers, kids on bikes, anglers working the shoreline. Cross Lake Cook Road on foot and you are in 408 acres of Lake County forest preserve. Cut southwest and you are on a nine-hole par-3 course built over the hill where Walter Payton trained. Very few Chicago suburbs put that much outdoor variety inside a five-minute radius.
The social character is neighbor-run rather than developer-imposed. There is no mandatory association collecting dues and programming events. What happens instead is block parties residents organize themselves, streets closed off, everyone bringing a dish. A 2017 Daily Herald neighborhood profile found original owners who had been there since the homes were framed sitting alongside a wave of younger buyers, including adult children of Terramere families circling back to buy where they grew up. That mix is part of why the housing stock has been reinvested in rather than left alone. Additions, kitchen gut jobs and updated baths are common here, and the park district is currently pursuing state OSLAD grant funding for a Lake Terramere Park plan that includes a new playground, shoreline stabilization, a fishing pier and expanded paths. Treat those improvements as proposed and grant-dependent rather than built.
The honest tradeoffs are age, taxes, schools and car dependence. These are 1980s houses, and the spread between a fully renovated home and one still wearing its original kitchen, windows and mechanicals is wide, so read the inspection carefully and budget accordingly. Cook County effective residential tax rates in Arlington Heights have run in the low 2 percent range of market value in recent years before homeowner exemptions, which is a real carrying cost on a house this size. The school assignment is a legitimate point of confusion: buyers shopping Arlington Heights schools often mean District 25 and Hersey or Prospect, and Terramere is District 21 and Buffalo Grove High School, which moves the decision for some families. And this is a car-first location, with no walkable retail inside the subdivision and the Metra stations a drive rather than a walk.
The questions buyers actually ask
Terramere FAQ
The questions I get most from buyers shopping Terramere. If yours isn't here, text 224-385-8779, same-day reply.
- What are property taxes like?
- Roughly $13,000 – $18,000 per year, depending on home size and value. Cook County assessor records are the source of truth. Happy to pull a specific bill on any home you're considering.
- When was Terramere built?
- Kennedy Homes (reported by neighborhood profiles, not confirmed from a recorded filing) built the community between 1979 and 1989. Kennedy Homes (reported by neighborhood profiles, not confirmed from a recorded filing) stopped new construction in 1989, so every sale today is a resale.
- What's the typical closing timeline?
- 30 to 60 days from accepted offer to keys. Cash deals can close in two weeks. Conventional financing is usually closer to 60.
- Does Terramere have a homeowners association or monthly dues?
- No mandatory HOA dues are reported for Terramere. Published subdivision data lists the association fee at zero, and the lake and park at the center of the neighborhood are owned and maintained by the Arlington Heights Park District rather than a private lake association. Neighborhood social life runs on informal, neighbor-organized events like summer block parties. If you are buying a lakefront lot, have your attorney review the title commitment for any recorded shoreline, dock or water-rights provisions attached to that specific parcel.
- What schools serve Terramere?
- Cook County parcel records place Terramere in Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 for elementary and middle school and in Township High School District 214 for high school. Published neighborhood profiles identify the assigned schools as Longfellow Elementary and Cooper Middle School in District 21 and Buffalo Grove High School in District 214. This is the fact buyers get wrong most often here, because much of Arlington Heights is District 25 and Hersey or Prospect. Attendance boundaries can change, and District 21 asks families to confirm a specific address with the district office, so verify before you write an offer.
- Can you swim, boat or fish on Lake Terramere?
- Fishing yes, swimming no. The Arlington Heights Park District describes Lake Terramere as a retention pond and states plainly that swimming is prohibited, while patrons regularly fish from the shore. The park also has a playground, picnic tables and a 0.67 mile path around the water, and it is open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. If you see an older listing or article describing swimming or boating here, go with the park district's posted rules.
- How old are the homes, and how big are they?
- Terramere was built out from the late 1970s through the 1980s. Published sources describe roughly a dozen floor plans, typically four or five bedrooms with 2.5 to 3.5 baths, a basement and a two-car garage, generally in the range of about 2,000 to just over 4,000 square feet. A handful of custom homes on the lake have walkout basements and three-car garages. Because these are original 1980s houses, condition varies widely, so weigh renovation status carefully when you compare two homes with similar square footage.
- What do homes in Terramere sell for, and how is the market?
- Rather than quote a number that goes stale, check the live Market snapshot on this page. It pulls current active listings and recent sales straight from the MLS. In general terms, Terramere sits toward the upper tier of Arlington Heights on a per-home basis because the houses are large, and well-kept homes here tend to attract attention quickly.
- What are property taxes like?
- Terramere is in Cook County, Wheeling Township. Estimated effective residential property tax rates in Arlington Heights have run in the low 2 percent range of full market value in recent years before homeowner exemptions, according to the Civic Federation's annual study. Effective rates vary by tax code within a town, and homeowner and senior exemptions reduce what an owner-occupant actually pays, so confirm the current bill and exemptions on any specific address with the Cook County Treasurer.
- Who is the real estate agent for Terramere?
- Joe Keegan is the local licensed Illinois real estate broker who covers Terramere in Arlington Heights, IL through Subdiview, a neighborhood-first home search for the Chicago suburbs and collar counties. Joe prices and negotiates from the live MRED sold comps for Terramere specifically, not national averages, and can help you buy or sell here. Reach Joe at 224-385-8779 or joe@joekeeganhomes.com.
Your local agent
Joe knows Terramere
Most agents will list anything. I focus on the places I actually know, and the things that move value here don't show up in the MLS write-up: which streets and buildings hold demand, what the HOA or assessments really cover, how the comps read once you account for condition and location, and where buyers consistently want to be.
When you're ready to tour or list, you want someone who has read the last 50 closed comps in this specific market, not a national average, and can tell you what they actually mean for your price. That's how I work. Text or call any time, and I'll give you a real take, not a brochure.
- Licensed Illinois broker
- Comp-driven pricing
- Arlington Heights specialist
- Honest local market take
- Brokerocity
Market snapshot
Terramere, by the numbers
Live MRED data, refreshed daily. The numbers below tell you what this market is doing today, not what Zillow's algorithm thinks it might be doing six weeks from now.
Typical sale price · last 90 days
$727,500
Sold in the last year
13
This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC for the period August 16, 2025 through August 16, 2026. Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC does not guarantee nor is it in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by Midwest Real Estate Data LLC may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.
Thinking of selling?
What's your home actually worth?
Not a Zestimate. A real CMA from someone who's sold this neighborhood, knows the floor plan premiums, and can tell you which upgrades the buyer pool here actually pays for.
- Pricing range with comp-by-comp logic
- Pre-list improvements that pay back, and the ones that don't
- No obligation, no spam, no auto-dialer
Other communities