Joy, Illinois.
Typical home $173,389 (+13.1% in a year). Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$362 (+66%) since Feb 2021.
- 1 year
- Up $20,122 +13%
- $153,267$173,389 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $4,204 +2%
- $169,185$173,389 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.
- Joy$910
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Joy, IL rose 13.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Joy, Mercer County, Illinois
Joy is a village of 372 people in Mercer County. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Mercer County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 7.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Mercer County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Joy is a very small village in Mercer County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the population is young for a place this size. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and snow arrives most years. Summers are warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, retail and the building trades also common. Few people work from home, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Across Mercer County, the largest workplaces include the Mercer County School District, Walmart and Genesis Medical Center - Aledo, and the county has added jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Iowa River, a short drive away, offers time by the water, and Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge, also a short drive away, is a protected area for walking and watching birds. Farther afield, Wildcat Den State Park is a protected area, and the Figge Art Museum is a museum for a longer day out.
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- 169households
- 8%of adults have a degree
- 4%work from home
What people in Mercer County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mercer County had 3,190 jobs in 2025, 7.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 22 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Aledo weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mercer County
- Mercer County School District 404School district168FTE
- Sherrard CUSD 200School district147FTE
- WalmartDiscount department stores85
- Mercer Manor RehabilitationNursing homes75
- Genesis Medical Center - AledoCritical access hospital73FTE
- Arcadia Care of AledoSkilled nursing facilities55
- Novus AgChemicals, agricultural, merchant wholesalers46
- Meridian Senior Living623312 assisted living facilities for the elderly36
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 505 people in all across the county; Joy has one of its own. 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
- Strong windVery high
- LightningVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively 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 Joy’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 Mercer County and the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL metro.
Joy home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Joy$173,389
- 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.
Zip codes with a Joy address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Joy — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.