Downs, Illinois.
Typical home $329,429 (+1.7% in a year). Bloomington, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$907 (+110%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,530 +2%
- $323,899$329,429 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $85,590 +35%
- $243,839$329,429 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.
- Downs$1,729
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Downs, IL rose 1.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Downs, McLean County, Illinois
Downs is a village of 1,201 people in McLean County. Half its households earn more than $110,625 a year and half less, against $79,905 across McLean County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 91% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 9% are rented. Unemployment in McLean County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in McLean County work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Downs is a small village in McLean County, home to a young community by the standards of the county and the country. Households here earn well above the county's typical income, and nearly everyone owns the home they live in, so neighbors tend to stay put and know one another. A large share of adults hold a four-year degree, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others employed in banks, insurance and property, in shops, and in professional and business services. Commutes are fairly short, and a good number of people work from home. Across McLean County, Illinois State University and McLean County USD 5 are among the largest workplaces, alongside Rivian's plant in Normal. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. A short drive away, Miller Park in Bloomington is a protected green space, and the Miller Park Zoo sits beside it. Fell Arboretum, a botanical garden, is also a short drive away, as is the McLean County Museum of History. For time on the water, Lake Bloomington, a reservoir, is a longer drive.
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- 573households
- 56%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 18%work from home
What people in McLean County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McLean County had 87,006 jobs in 2025, 2.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 63°. About 20 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Normal 4NE weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McLean County
- Rivian Motorway (Normal, Illinois)Assembly plants, light trucks on chassis of own manufacture5,309
- Illinois State UniversityUniversity or college3,570
- McLean County USD 5School district1,988FTE
- City of BloomingtonParks, nature1,113
- Carle Bromenn Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,030FTE
- St. Joseph Medical CenterGeneral hospital843FTE
- FerreroChocolate bars made from cocoa beans678
- Bloomington SD 87School district565FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 144 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 28,686 people in all across the county; Downs has two of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Downs’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 McLean County and the Bloomington, IL metro.
Downs home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Downs$329,429
- 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.
- Downs6
Zip codes with a Downs address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Downs — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.