Fairbury, Illinois.
Typical home $199,517 (+10.0% in a year). Pontiac, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$599 (+134%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,077 +10%
- $181,440$199,517 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $67,882 +52%
- $131,635$199,517 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.
- Fairbury$1,047
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 8 years.
Typical home values in Fairbury, IL rose 10.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois
Fairbury is a city of 3,633 people in Livingston County. Half its households earn more than $70,962 a year and half less, against $73,790 across Livingston County; 2% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fairbury is a small city in Livingston County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners and poverty is rare. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and typical home values are modest. Winters are cold and snowy, and summers turn warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades close behind. Some of the largest workplaces in Fairbury are Fairview Haven, a skilled nursing facility, Dave's Supermarket, and TechMetals, a maker of precision turned products. Commutes are short, and unemployment across the county has eased compared with a year earlier.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake are both reservoirs a longer drive away, and Moraine View State Recreation Area is a protected area in the same range. The Prairie Aviation Museum is a museum, also a longer drive from town.
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- 1,502households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 15 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents 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 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 20 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chenoa weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fairbury
- Fairview HavenSkilled nursing facilities189
- Dave's SupermarketCommissaries, primarily groceries112
- TechMetalsPrecision turned product manufacturing74
- Popejoy Plumbing, Heating and ElectricPlumbing and heating contractors62
- PTC Tubular Products LLC Fairbury PlantTubing, mechanical and hypodermic sizes, cold-drawn stainless steel, made from purchased steel34
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 471 people in all. 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- LightningVery high
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fairbury’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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.
Fairbury home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fairbury$199,517
- 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.
- Fairbury9
Zip codes with a Fairbury address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fairbury — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.