Lake Bluff, Illinois.
Typical home $674,980 (+9.6% in a year), asking rent $2,058 . Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,040 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $58,932 +10%
- $616,048$674,980 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $212,948 +46%
- $462,032$674,980 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.
- Lake Bluff$3,543
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Lake Bluff, IL rose 9.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lake Bluff, Lake County, Illinois
Lake Bluff is a village of 5,616 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $204,000 a year and half less, against $110,416 across Lake County; 2% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lake Bluff is a village in Lake County, Illinois, and it is a settled, comfortable place. Nearly all of its homes are lived in by their owners, incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live in poverty. The population is older than in many towns, and almost every adult holds a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing, and summers are warm.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in banking, insurance and property. Within the village, some of the largest workplaces are Mariani Landscape, the Lake Bluff ESD 65 Schools and Heinen's grocery store. A good number of people work from home, and those who commute face a drive of moderate length.
Things to do. The Chicago Botanic Garden is a short drive away, as is Six Flags Great America, an amusement park. For a day in the city, Lincoln Park and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago are a longer drive, as is Wrigley Field.
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- 2,212households
- 82%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 34%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 325,826 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 63°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waukegan weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lake Bluff
- Mariani Landscape - Rockland RoadLandscaping services331
- Lake Bluff ESD 65School district140FTE
- Mariani Premier Group (MPG)Landscaping services129
- Homewerks Worldwide LLC Lake BluffBrass goods, plumbers', merchant wholesalers116
- Heinen'sGrocery stores102
- Zeigler Lake Forest FerrariNew car dealers44
- The Ragsdale Co27
- Central Lake County Joint Action Water AgencyFiltration plant, water26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 945 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 in parts of Lake BluffRelatively moderate
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of Lake BluffRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lake Bluff’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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.
Lake Bluff home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lake Bluff$674,980
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Lake Bluff listings — 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.
- Lake Bluff21.14%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lake Bluff33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lake Bluff12
Zip codes with a Lake Bluff address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lake Bluff — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.