Carthage, Illinois.
Typical home $127,005 (+3.0% in a year). Fort Madison-Keokuk, IA-IL-MO metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$293 (+78%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,657 +3%
- $123,349$127,005 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $15,990 +14%
- $111,015$127,005 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.
- Carthage$667
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 26 years.
Typical home values in Carthage, IL rose 3.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois
Carthage is a city of 2,490 people in Hancock County. Half its households earn more than $77,004 a year and half less, against $65,865 across Hancock County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% are rented. Unemployment in Hancock County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 2.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Carthage is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, and its people are older than in most American towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, incomes run above the county's, and homes cost less than in much of the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the hottest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing and government. Among the largest workplaces in Carthage are Memorial Hospital, the Illini West school district and the Carthage school district. Most people have a short drive to work, and very few work from home.
Things to do. Carthage Jail, a museum in or beside town, is the nearest of the places worth a visit. A longer drive takes you to Nauvoo State Park, a protected area, and to Nauvoo House, another museum. The Des Moines River, a longer drive away, is the best known of the rivers in the area.
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- 1,081households
- 34%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hancock County had 4,257 jobs in 2025, 2.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 34° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 66°. About 23 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bentley weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carthage
- Memorial HospitalHospitals, general medical and surgical450
- Memorial HospitalAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities85
- Illini West H S Dist 307 SchoolsSchool district39FTE
- Carthage ESD 317School district38FTE
- Niemann Foods30
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 565 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Carthage’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Hancock County and the Fort Madison-Keokuk, IA-IL-MO metro.
Carthage home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Carthage$127,005
- 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.
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Carthage17
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Carthage address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Carthage — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.