What a New HOA Fee in Lincolnshire Doesn't Tell You Yet
October 1, 2026
October 1, 2026
Three-bedroom townhomes at The Townes at Barclay, M/I Homes' new community at the corner of Barclay Boulevard and Aptakisic Road, currently carry a homeowners association fee of $398 a month. A few miles away, at Beaconsfield, a townhome community built in the early 2000s off Route 22, the association has been collecting dues, replacing roofs, and repaving its own private streets for more than twenty years. Both numbers get filed under the same line item on a settlement statement. Only one of them has been tested by an actual Illinois winter.
That difference matters more than the dollar figure itself. A new-construction HOA fee is a projection set before the community has any maintenance history. An established HOA fee is a record of what the community has actually cost to run. For buyers comparing a brand-new townhome to a resale one in Lincolnshire this fall, the gap between those two kinds of numbers is the thing worth understanding before anything else.
The Townes at Barclay isn't a rumor or a rendering. The Village of Lincolnshire's board approved the final development plan and final plat of subdivision for the project, an attached single-family residential townhome community built by M/I Homes on parcels at 425, 435, and 445 Aptakisic Road, with the village allowing a deferral of required development donations from plat approval to building permit issuance. That's the paper trail behind the sales center now open at 100 Sterling Drive.
The homes themselves run roughly 1,991 to 2,436 square feet, sit in Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125, and were originally advertised from $649,990. Builder listings this past July showed the community's entry price had already moved to around $682,000, with homes at the top of the range priced near $973,655. That climb isn't a red flag. It's how new-construction pricing normally behaves as a builder sells through early phases and adjusts later ones. But it's worth noticing for the same reason the HOA fee is worth noticing: the number you see today is a snapshot of where the community happens to be right now, not a fixed fact about the home.
M/I Homes has built this way nearby before, with townhome communities at Sterling Place in Northbrook and The Villas at Link Crossing in Buffalo Grove. That track record is a reasonable thing for a buyer to ask about. It doesn't answer the specific question this post is about, which is who actually controls the association's checkbook right now, and for how much longer.
Most Chicago-area townhome and single-family HOA communities, including new ones like Barclay, are governed by the Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act rather than the condo statute. According to KSN Law, the developer keeps control of the board until no later than 60 days after 75 percent of the units have been conveyed, or three years from when the declaration was recorded, whichever comes first. Only after that turnover does an elected board of actual owners take over, and only then does that board typically commission its own review of what the community will cost to maintain.
Until that point, the $398 figure is the budget of a developer-appointed board. It reflects costs as projected at the start of the community's life, before any roof, pavement, or common area has needed replacing. That is the ordinary starting point for a new association under Illinois law, whichever builder is involved.
Here's the part of this that surprises most buyers: PropFusion says Illinois does not currently require HOAs or condo associations to commission a reserve study at all.
Illinois HOA Law reported that HB 2563 and its companion SB 1703 would require associations with major shared infrastructure to commission a reserve study at least every five years and had been re-referred to committee without becoming law.
None of this means the fee is wrong. It means it hasn't been independently checked against real costs yet, and won't be until the community completes the statutory turnover process and an owner board takes a hard look at the books.
Compare that to what's already sitting a short drive from Barclay. Beaconsfield's townhomes, ranging from 1,877 to 2,615 square feet, have been standing since the early 2000s and are managed by American Property Management of IL. Old Farm Village, Rookery Pointe, and the gated Camberley Club are three more established townhome communities inside Lincolnshire with their own owner-elected boards and their own dues history.
None of these communities are guaranteed to be perfectly funded. Illinois' lack of a reserve study mandate applies to them too. But an association that has been owner-run for fifteen or twenty years has been through at least one roof cycle, one round of asphalt resurfacing, and probably one uncomfortable conversation about whether to raise dues or levy a special assessment. That history shows up in board minutes and in the budget itself. It's a lot more informative than a builder's projection made before a single winter has tested the roofs.
Chicago-area HOA dues broadly have been climbing, with fees across the city and suburbs rising by roughly 10 percent in 2024 and continuing upward through 2025 and into 2026 as labor and material costs stay elevated. That trend touches both new and established communities. The difference is that an established board has already had to reckon with it in a real budget cycle, while a builder-controlled board hasn't had to yet.
Does a lower HOA fee at a new community mean it's genuinely cheaper to own long term? Not on its own. A lower fee at a builder-controlled community reflects an early-stage budget that hasn't yet been checked by an elected board or, in many cases, by any formal reserve analysis. It may hold steady for years. It may also see a meaningful increase once ownership changes hands and real maintenance costs come into focus.
When does control of the Townes at Barclay HOA move from M/I Homes to the owners? Under the Illinois Common Interest Community Association Act, that happens no later than 60 days after 75 percent of the units have been conveyed, or three years from when the declaration was recorded, whichever comes first. The timing therefore depends on sales pace, subject to the three-year limit.
How do I check whether an existing Lincolnshire HOA has enough in reserves? Ask for recent meeting minutes and any special assessment history, and ask directly whether the association has commissioned a reserve study, since Illinois doesn't require one but many well-run boards get one anyway. A community that can answer these questions clearly is usually one that's been managing its budget with some discipline.
If you're weighing a new-construction townhome against something already established in Lincolnshire, that's exactly the kind of comparison worth walking through with someone who knows both sides of the ledger. The GGL Group can help you read an HOA budget the way a buyer should, before you're the one paying into it.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.