Colchester, Illinois.
Typical home $104,094 (+8.8% in a year). Macomb, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$243 (+80%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,413 +9%
- $95,681$104,094 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $17,275 +20%
- $86,819$104,094 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.
- Colchester$546
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Colchester, IL rose 8.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Colchester, McDonough County, Illinois
Colchester is a city of 1,108 people in McDonough County. Half its households earn more than $63,981 a year and half less, against $52,795 across McDonough County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in McDonough County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Colchester is a small city in McDonough County, Illinois, where households earn more than the county's typical household and homes are priced modestly. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm by July. Rain and melted snow fall at a steady, ordinary rate through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing and transport, warehouses and utilities also common. Across McDonough County, the largest workplaces include Western Illinois University, Pella Corporation Macomb Operations and McDonough District Hospital. Most people have a short drive to work, fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than you might find elsewhere, and the county has seen jobs slip slightly in the past year.
Things to do. Argyle Lake State Park is a protected area in or beside town, a natural place to walk or spend an afternoon outdoors. Spring Lake Park, a garden, is a short drive away, as is Hanson Field, a stadium. For a longer outing, Carthage Jail is a museum a longer drive away.
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- 532households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McDonough County had 9,955 jobs in 2025, 1.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 65°. About 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the La Harpe weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McDonough County
- Western Illinois UniversityUniversity or college1,314
- Pella Corporation Macomb OperationsWindows and window frames, vinyl, manufacturing483
- Mcdonough District HospitalGeneral hospital412FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters321
- Macomb CUSD 185School district306FTE
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores166
- Bushnell Prairie City CUSD 170School district152FTE
- Mosaic MacombIntellectual and developmental disability intermediate care facilities142
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 36 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,088 people in all across the county; Colchester has two of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- 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 Colchester’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 McDonough County and the Macomb, IL metro.
Colchester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Colchester$104,094
- 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.
- Colchester6
Zip codes with a Colchester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Colchester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.