Centralia, Illinois.
Typical home $114,700 (+7.2% in a year). St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$307 (+104%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,717 +7%
- $106,983$114,700 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $21,294 +23%
- $93,406$114,700 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.
- Centralia$602
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Centralia, IL rose 7.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Centralia, Clinton County, Illinois
Centralia is a city of 12,182 people in Clinton County. Half its households earn more than $47,807 a year and half less, against $86,588 across Clinton County; 24% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Clinton County was 2.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Centralia is a small city where residents are somewhat younger than in much of the country, and most people own the homes they live in. Incomes run well below the county's, and more households live below the poverty line than is typical, while homes are priced modestly. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with some snow each year and a good deal of rain across the seasons.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing a good share. The largest workplaces in town include SSM Health ST. Marys Hospital, Walmart and American Bath Group, a maker of plumbing fixtures. Commutes are short, few people work from home, and unemployment across Clinton County has eased from a year earlier.
Things to do. Raccoon Lake, a reservoir, and Fan's Field, a stadium, are both in or beside town. The Big Muddy River is a short drive away, and Carlyle Lake, a large reservoir, is a longer drive for a day on the water.
Report a mistake
- 5,094households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clinton County had 12,725 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 12 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Iuka Southwest weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Centralia
- SSM Health St. Marys HospitalGeneral hospital385FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters325
- American Bath GroupPlumbing fixtures, plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing243
- Conagra BrandsCommercial bakeries181
- South Central Illinois Mass Transit DistrictBus transit systems135
- Centralia SD 135School district133FTE
- Centralia ManorSkilled nursing facilities113
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services109
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,336 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of CentraliaRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Centralia’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 Clinton County and the St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
Centralia home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Centralia$114,700
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Centralia 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.
- Centralia22.18%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Centralia68
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Centralia20
Zip codes with a Centralia address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Centralia — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.