Highland, Indiana.
Typical home $266,948 (+2.0% in a year), asking rent $1,588 (+7.6%). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$722 (+106%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,210 +2%
- $261,739$266,948 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,452 +22%
- $218,497$266,948 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$1,401
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Highland, IN rose 2.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Highland, IN rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Highland runs $303/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $369 in Jan 2025.
That is $1,891 a month against $1,588 rent: a $1,401 mortgage payment, plus $204 property tax and $286 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Highland
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,891
- Renting$1,588
- Mortgage only$1,401
Property tax · $204/mo 0.92% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Lake County, IN
Insurance & upkeep · $286/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Highland, Lake County, Indiana
Highland is a town of 23,984 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $78,062 a year and half less, against $71,493 across Lake County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as 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 town in Lake County, Indiana, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical household income is above the county's. Residents tend to be somewhat older than in many towns, and a good number of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with snow through the season, and summers turn warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Highland are the School Town of Highland, Meijer and Target. Most people travel a fair way to work, and only a small share work from home.
Things to do. For a day out, the nearest big draws are in Chicago, a longer drive away. The Art Institute of Chicago is among the best known museums, Millennium Park is a garden in the middle of the city, and Wrigley Field is a ballpark for baseball days. Each is a longer drive away rather than a quick trip.
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- 10,440households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 191,579 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 28 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Park Forest weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Highland
- EMCOR Hyre Electric Co. of IndianaFire alarm system, electric, installation only384
- School Town of HighlandSchool district311FTE
- MeijerRetail247
- K2 Industrial ServicesCleaning building interiors during and immediately after construction183
- TargetDiscount department stores167
- Strack and Van TilSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores113
- Kohl's101
- Grimmer ConstructionDistribution line, sewer and water, construction98
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,547 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of HighlandRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
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 low. 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 Lake County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI 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$266,948
- Indiana$257,165
- 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 14 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Highland32.07%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Highland14
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Highland71
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Highland24
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Highland$271,545
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Highland99.30%
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.