Clay City, Illinois.
Typical home $104,765 (+7.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$249 (+83%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,879 +7%
- $97,886$104,765 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $13,319 +15%
- $91,445$104,765 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.
- Clay City$550
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 25 years.
Typical home values in Clay City, IL rose 7.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Clay City, Clay County, Illinois
Clay City is a village of 847 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $53,472 a year and half less, against $60,417 across Clay County. Unemployment in Clay County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Clay County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Clay City is a small village in Clay County, Illinois, where neighbors tend to know one another. Household incomes here run below the county's, and homes are modestly priced. Very few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn hot, with steady rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and professional and business services also employing many. Across Clay County, some of the largest workplaces are North American Lighting, Flora CUSD 35 and Clay County Hospital. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year ago, and the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. The closest outdoor places are all a longer drive away. Red Hills State Park is a protected area, and Newton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is another, both suited to a day out in nature. The Fox River is a river to visit for time by the water.
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- 277households
- 4%of adults have a degree
What people in Clay County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 4,691 jobs in 2025, 1.4% 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 89° and lows near 66°. About 12 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Flora weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clay County
- North American LightingMotor vehicle electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing772
- Hella ElectronicsCruise control mechanisms, electronic, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing404
- Flora CUSD 35School district229FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters211
- Clay County HospitalCritical access hospital187FTE
- ELT TransportGeneral freight trucking, local185
- The Sherwin-Williams CompanyPaint and coating manufacturing131
- North Clay CUSD 25School district114FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,199 people in all across the county; Clay City has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Clay City’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 Clay County.
Clay City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Clay City$104,765
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Clay City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Clay City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.