Kankakee, Illinois.
Typical home $155,977 (+4.4% in a year), asking rent $1,204 (+3.3%). Kankakee, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$463 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,614 +4%
- $149,364$155,977 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,309 +37%
- $113,669$155,977 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.
- Kankakee$819
- 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 Kankakee, IL rose 4.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Kankakee, IL rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Kankakee runs $69/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $110 in Jan 2025.
That is $1,274 a month against $1,204 rent: a $819 mortgage payment, plus $288 property tax and $167 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Kankakee
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$1,274
- Renting$1,204
- Mortgage only$819
Property tax · $288/mo 2.21% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Kankakee County, IL
Insurance & upkeep · $167/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 Kankakee, Kankakee County, Illinois
Kankakee is a city of 24,052 people in Kankakee County. Half its households earn more than $47,514 a year and half less, against $71,281 across Kankakee County; 26% of its people live below the poverty line. 51% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 49% are rented. Unemployment in Kankakee was 5.1% in August 2026, and Kankakee County had 0.7% fewer 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. Kankakee is a small city in Kankakee County, with a younger population than many Illinois towns. Incomes here run well below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than most would expect. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the country, so renting is common. Winters are cold, with a fair amount of snow, and summers are warm.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Kankakee are Riverside Medical Center, Kankakee Schools and the County of Kankakee. Unemployment is lower than a year earlier, though the county has lost a few jobs over the past year. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, and most people commute a modest distance rather than working from home.
Things to do. The Iroquois River and Rock Creek are both a short drive away for time near the water. Farther out, Kankakee River State Park is a protected area along the river that gives the city its name. Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is another protected area, also a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 9,122households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kankakee County had 41,919 jobs in 2025, 0.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 65°. About 21 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kankakee Metro Wastewater weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kankakee
- Riverside Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,013FTE
- Kankakee SD 111School district839FTE
- County of KankakeeCity or county courts436
- Presence St. Marys HospitalGeneral hospital413FTE
- City of KankakeeGovernment base facilities operation support services322
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters303
- AHF ProductsFloor coverings, vinyl, manufacturing225
- The Sherwin-Williams CompanyPaint and coating manufacturing197
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,242 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of KankakeeRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Kankakee’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 Kankakee County and the Kankakee, IL metro.
Kankakee home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kankakee$155,977
- 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 5 Kankakee listings, and the typical home goes pending in 14 days — 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.
- Kankakee21.52%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Kankakee86
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Kankakee29
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Kankakee$177,221
- United States$371,553
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 Kankakee address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kankakee — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Kankakee
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60901 | Kankakee | 33,128 | $1,204 | $161,682 |
| 60910 | Aroma Park | 582 | — | $153,842 |