Byron, Illinois.
Typical home $286,093 (+8.5% in a year). Rochelle, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$829 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $22,377 +8%
- $263,716$286,093 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $76,641 +37%
- $209,452$286,093 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Byron$1,502
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Byron, IL rose 8.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Byron, Ogle County, Illinois
Byron is a city of 3,784 people in Ogle County. Half its households earn more than $78,852 a year and half less, against $82,132 across Ogle County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Ogle County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 3.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Byron is a small city in Ogle County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and the population is somewhat younger than in many small towns. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in January and a good deal of snow, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, transport and warehousing, and retail also employing sizable numbers. Byron CUSD, Niemann Foods and the Ogle Co Education Cooperative Schools are among the largest workplaces in town. Commutes are fairly long, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Kishwaukee River and Lowden State Park are both a short drive away, offering water and woodland for a walk or an afternoon outdoors. Also close by is Chana School, a museum, for a look at local history. For a longer outing, White Pines Forest State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 1,503households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ogle County had 14,427 jobs in 2025, 3.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 37 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rockford Greater Rockford Airport weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Byron
- Byron CUSD 226School district268FTE
- Niemann Foods46
- Ogle Co Education Cooperative SchoolsSchool district39FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 46 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Inland floodingVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Byron’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Ogle County and the Rochelle, IL metro.
Byron home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Byron$286,093
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 12 Byron listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Byron8.02%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Byron18
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Byron10
Zip codes with a Byron address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Byron — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.