Cornell, Illinois.
Typical home $173,857 (+11.1% in a year). Pontiac, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$526 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,318 +11%
- $156,539$173,857 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $57,542 +49%
- $116,315$173,857 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.
- Cornell$913
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Cornell, IL rose 11.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cornell, Livingston County, Illinois
Cornell is a village of 446 people in Livingston County. Half its households earn more than $68,750 a year and half less, against $73,790 across Livingston County; 22% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Livingston County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Livingston 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cornell is a small village in Livingston County, Illinois, home to fewer people than most towns of any size. Household incomes run below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Homes are modestly priced, and a four-year degree is less common among adults here than in many places.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing many. Across Livingston County, some of the largest workplaces are Pontiac Facility, Vactor Manufacturing and Pontiac Correctional Center. The typical commute is a moderate one, and a small share of people work from home.
Things to do. Rooks Creek, a river, is a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Starved Rock State Park, one of the best known protected areas in the region, and to Matthiessen State Park, another protected area. Winters are cold and snowy here, and summers are warm, so the outdoors suits the warmer months best.
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- 161households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What people in Livingston County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Livingston County had 13,918 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 26 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Streator Southeast weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Livingston County
- Pontiac FacilityDiesel and semidiesel engines manufacturing918
- Vactor ManufacturingHeavy trucks assembling on purchased chassis765
- Pontiac Correctional CenterCorrectional institutions458
- OSF Healthcare SJJWAMCHospitals, general medical and surgical383
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters332
- DWT - Aldi329
- WilliamIntellectual and developmental disability facilities, residential279
- Livingston CountyGovernment base facilities operation support services278
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 45 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,548 people in all across the county; Cornell has none of its own. 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cornell’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 Livingston County and the Pontiac, IL metro.
Cornell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cornell$173,857
- 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.
- Cornell5
Zip codes with a Cornell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cornell — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.