Gillespie, Illinois.
Typical home $116,822 (-9.5% in a year). St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$230 (+60%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $12,272 -10%
- $129,094$116,822 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $3,232 +3%
- $113,590$116,822 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.
- Gillespie$613
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Gillespie, IL fell 9.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Gillespie, Macoupin County, Illinois
Gillespie is a city of 3,168 people in Macoupin County. Half its households earn more than $82,772 a year and half less, against $70,805 across Macoupin County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% are rented. Unemployment in Macoupin County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in shops, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Gillespie is a small city in Macoupin County where most homes are lived in by their owners. The population skews older, and typical household incomes run higher than across the county, though a noticeable part of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, and in professional and business services. Across Macoupin County, some of the largest workplaces are Carlinville Area Hospital, Carlinville CUSD 1 and Walmart. Commutes are fairly long, a good number of people work from home, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Beaver Dam State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and Lake Lou Yaeger is a reservoir, also a longer drive away. Those who like history can visit the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site, a museum a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 1,135households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Macoupin County had 9,921 jobs in 2025, 2.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 66°. About 16 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Carlinville weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Macoupin County
- Carlinville Area HospitalCritical access hospital240FTE
- Carlinville CUSD 1School district206FTE
- North Mac CUSD 34School district194FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters182
- Gillespie CUSD 7School district176FTE
- Staunton CUSD 6School district165FTE
- Blackburn CollegeUniversity or college149
- Mount Olive Container129
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 33 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,077 people in all across the county; Gillespie has two of its own. 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
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Gillespie’s 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 Macoupin County and the St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
Gillespie home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gillespie$116,822
- 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.
- Gillespie12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Gillespie address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gillespie — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.