Highland, Illinois.
Typical home $275,189 (+6.9% in a year). St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$812 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,758 +7%
- $257,431$275,189 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $74,634 +37%
- $200,555$275,189 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.
- Highland$1,444
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Highland, IL rose 6.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Highland, Madison County, Illinois
Highland is a city of 9,991 people in Madison County. Half its households earn more than $82,551 a year and half less, against $75,793 across Madison County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% are rented. Unemployment in Madison County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Highland is a small city in Madison County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners and residents are somewhat older than in many places. Incomes run above the county's, fewer people live below the poverty line than you might expect, and a four-year degree is held by a good number of adults. Winters are cold and a little snowy, summers turn hot, and rain and melted snow arrive in fair amounts through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Highland are Eaton, Walmart and Highland CUSD 5. Unemployment across Madison County has eased over the past year, and the county has added jobs.
Things to do. The best-known places nearby are a longer drive away. Cahokia is an archaeological site, and Gateway Arch National Park is a national park, both reached by a longer drive. Carlyle Lake, a reservoir, is also a longer drive away, and suits a day by the water.
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- 4,931households
- 36%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Madison County had 107,517 jobs in 2025, 2.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 68°. About 11 inches of snow and 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Belleville Siu Rsch weather station, 19 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Highland
- EatonMetal fabrication389
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters358
- Highland CUSD 5School district348FTE
- Basler Electric Company - Highland (2)Power transformers, electric, manufacturing328
- City of Highland-Parks and RecRecreational sports club facilities160
- St. Josephs Hospital-highlandCritical access hospital158FTE
- The Korte CompanyCommercial building construction general contractors138
- Highland Health Care CenterNursing homes104
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,271 people in all. School districts come 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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Highland’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 Madison County and the St. Louis, MO-IL metro.
Highland home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Highland$275,189
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Highland listings, and the typical home goes pending in 6 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Highland28.82%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Highland6
- United States21
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Highland39
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Highland19
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Highland$236,935
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Highland address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Highland — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.