Cobden, Illinois.
Typical home $191,053 (+4.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$474 (+90%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,009 +4%
- $183,044$191,053 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,546 +24%
- $153,508$191,053 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.
- Cobden$1,003
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Cobden, IL rose 4.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cobden, Union County, Illinois
Cobden is a village of 1,074 people in Union County. Unemployment in Union County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Union County work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cobden is a small village in Union County, in the hilly southern tip of Illinois. Winters are cold, with only light snowfall, and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree here than is typical across the country, and the commute to work is of ordinary length.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, or in government. Across Union County, some of the largest workplaces are Choate Mental Health Center, Walmart and the Anna school district. Jobs across the county have slipped a little over the past year, though unemployment is lower than it was a year earlier.
Things to do. Much of what is nearby is outdoors. Giant City State Park and Trail of Tears State Forest are both protected areas a short drive away, and Cedar Lake, a reservoir, is also close. Union Lookout, a tourist attraction, is a short drive away as well.
Report a mistake
- 427households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 24 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What people in Union County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Union County had 5,238 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 69°. About 10 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Anna Nne weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Union County
- Choate Mental Health CenterPsychiatric hospital662FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters184
- JR's CentreWorkshops for persons with disabilities161
- Anna CCSD 37School district100FTE
- Dyno Nobel Wolf LakeExplosives manufacturing99
- Chamness CareGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability81
- Anna Jonesboro CHSD 81School district69FTE
- Kroger Louisville KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores66
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 861 people in all across the county; Cobden has one of its own. 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 windVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cobden’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 Union County.
Cobden home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cobden$191,053
- 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.
- Cobden9
Zip codes with a Cobden address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cobden — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.