Fairfield, Illinois.
Typical home $105,349 (+6.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$188 (+52%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,783 +7%
- $98,565$105,349 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $8,900 +9%
- $96,449$105,349 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.
- Fairfield$553
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 39 years.
Typical home values in Fairfield, IL rose 6.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fairfield, Wayne County, Illinois
Fairfield is a city of 4,883 people in Wayne County. Half its households earn more than $41,989 a year and half less, against $55,521 across Wayne County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Wayne County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fairfield is a small city and the seat of Wayne County, Illinois. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and household incomes sit below the county's, with a larger share of people living below the poverty line than is usual. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and most people get to work in a short drive.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care employ the most residents, followed by shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Fairfield are Fairfield Memorial Hospital, Fairfield PSD Schools and Elastec. Across Wayne County, jobs were fewer last year than the year before, while unemployment has eased slightly from a year ago.
Things to do. The Wayne County Fairgrounds is a park in or beside town. A short drive away are the Elm River and the Mayberry Mound and Village Site, an archaeological site. Farther afield, Sam Dale Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is a protected area a longer drive away. Winters are cold, summers are hot, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
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- 2,314households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 3,958 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 68°. About 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fairfield Radio Wfiw weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fairfield
- Community Care SystemsHomemaker's service for elderly or disabled persons, non-medical288
- Fairfield Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital246FTE
- Fairfield PSD 112School district137FTE
- Frontier Community CollegeTwo-year college107
- Fairfield Comm H S Dist 225 SchoolsSchool district63FTE
- ElastecOil and gas field-type drilling machinery and equipment manufacturing24
- FairfieldMail and parcel delivery22
- Jack Walters & Sons Corp. - FairfieldFarm building construction22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 458 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Heat wavesVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fairfield’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 Wayne County.
Fairfield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fairfield$105,349
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Fairfield listings — the market is heating up.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Fairfield17.86%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fairfield60
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fairfield14
Zip codes with a Fairfield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fairfield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.