Chesterton, Indiana.
Typical home $344,669 (+2.9% in a year), asking rent $1,638 . Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$947 (+110%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,679 +3%
- $334,990$344,669 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $60,060 +21%
- $284,609$344,669 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.
- Chesterton$1,809
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Chesterton, IN rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
Chesterton is a town of 14,241 people in Porter County. Half its households earn more than $91,060 a year and half less, against $87,972 across Porter County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Porter County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chesterton is a town in Porter County, Indiana, where most homes are lived in by their owners and incomes run a little above the county's. Residents are somewhat younger than in many towns, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Chesterton are the Duneland School district, Priority Group Management, which runs skilled nursing facilities, and Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute - Chesterton. Unemployment in Porter County is close to where it stood a year earlier, and a fair number of residents work from home.
Things to do. Indiana Dunes National Park is a short drive away, and so is Indiana Dunes State Park, a protected area along the same stretch of shoreline. The Calumet Trail, also a short drive off, is a trail for walking and riding. In or beside town, Enchanted Forest is an amusement park, and Coffee Creek runs close by.
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- 6,004households
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 20%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Porter County had 63,898 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 64°. About 40 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Indiana Dunes Nl weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chesterton
- Duneland School CorporationSchool district638FTE
- Priority Group ManagementSkilled nursing facilities173
- Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute - ChestertonPhysicians' offices160
- Jewel Food StoresSupermarkets and other grocery stores159
- Ignite Medical Resort ChestertonSkilled nursing facility132
- Strack and Van TilSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores104
- ANDRITZ Metals USAMachine shops50
- Chesterton Surgery CenterAmbulatory surgical centers and clinics, freestanding47
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 952 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chesterton’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 Porter County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Chesterton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chesterton$344,669
- Indiana$257,165
- 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 Chesterton listings, and the typical home goes pending in 7 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.
- Chesterton26.93%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Chesterton7
- United States21
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chesterton63
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Chesterton24
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Chesterton$370,038
- United States$370,717
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Chesterton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chesterton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.