Carol Stream, Illinois.
Typical home $381,673 (+3.7% in a year), asking rent $1,844 (+3.3%). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,072 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,759 +4%
- $367,914$381,673 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $92,178 +32%
- $289,495$381,673 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.
- Carol Stream$2,003
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Carol Stream, IL rose 3.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Carol Stream, IL rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Carol Stream runs $1,218/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $3,063 a month against $1,844 rent: a $2,003 mortgage payment, plus $651 property tax and $409 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Carol Stream
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,063
- Renting$1,844
- Mortgage only$2,003
Property tax · $651/mo 2.05% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for DuPage County, IL
Insurance & upkeep · $409/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Carol Stream, DuPage County, Illinois
Carol Stream is a village of 39,854 people in DuPage County. Half its households earn more than $102,309 a year and half less, against $112,096 across DuPage County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 67% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 33% are rented. Unemployment in Carol Stream was 4.5% in August 2026, and DuPage County had 1.2% more 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 24 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. Carol Stream is a village in DuPage County, west of Chicago. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little below the county's. The population is middle-aged, and a four-year degree is common among adults. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Carol Stream are NM Regional Medical Group, Hearthside Foods Solutions and FIC America. Many people have a fairly long commute, and some work from home.
Things to do. Chicago's big attractions are a longer drive away. The Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History are among the best known museums, and Millennium Park is a garden and public space downtown. For a ball game, Wrigley Field is one of the best known stadiums in the country.
Report a mistake
- 14,487households
- 43%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. DuPage County had 629,392 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the West Chicago Dupage Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carol Stream
- NM Regional Medical GroupMds' offices3,167
- Carol StreamMail and parcel delivery1,071
- Hearthside Foods SolutionsBox lunches manufacturing1,000
- FIC AmericaClosures, metal, stamping524
- FedExCourier and express delivery services494
- Covenant Living at Windsor ParkContinuing care retirement communities311
- OSGPrinting, letterpress304
- First Student283
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 88 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 14,251 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of Carol StreamRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Carol Stream’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 DuPage County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Carol Stream home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Carol Stream$381,673
- 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 4 Carol Stream listings, and the typical home goes pending in 9 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Carol Stream24.07%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Carol Stream9
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Carol Stream70
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Carol Stream31
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Carol Stream$366,756
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Carol Stream100.68%
Zip codes with a Carol Stream address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Carol Stream — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.