Lake Forest, Illinois.
Typical home $1,264,926 (+11.2% in a year), asking rent $3,952 . Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,884 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $127,111 +11%
- $1,137,815$1,264,926 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $402,495 +47%
- $862,431$1,264,926 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 Forest$6,639
- 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 Forest, IL rose 11.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lake Forest, Lake County, Illinois
Lake Forest is a city of 19,367 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $235,081 a year and half less, against $110,416 across Lake County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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 Forest is a small city in Lake County, Illinois, and one of the older, more settled communities on Chicago's North Shore. The people who live here are older than in most places, and nearly all of them own their homes. Household incomes run far above the county's, very few residents fall below the poverty line, and typical home values are high. Almost every adult holds a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in manufacturing. Within the city, the largest workplaces include Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Packaging Corporation of America and Lake Forest College. Commutes are fairly long, and a good share of residents work from home. Unemployment in Lake County is lower than a year ago, though the county has lost a little ground in the number of jobs.
Things to do. The Chicago Botanic Garden and Six Flags Great America are both a short drive away, one a botanical garden and the other an amusement park. The Art Institute of Chicago, a museum, is a longer drive away. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs around freezing, and summers are warm, so gardens and outdoor outings are best saved for the warmer months.
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- 6,900households
- 80%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 30%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 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 34 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chicago Botanic Garden weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lake Forest
- Northwestern Lake Forest HospitalGeneral hospital1,521FTE
- Packaging Corporation of America904
- Lake Forest CollegeUniversity or college445
- Lake Forest SD 67School district324FTE
- Lake Forest CHSD 115School district306FTE
- Lake Forest Graduate School of ManagementUniversity or college174
- Jewel Food StoresSupermarkets and other grocery stores122
- Lake Forest Sunset Food MartGrocery stores117
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,830 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of Lake ForestRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lake Forest’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 Lake County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Lake Forest home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lake Forest$1,264,926
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Lake Forest listings, and the typical home goes pending in 13 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.
- Lake Forest17.20%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Lake Forest13
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lake Forest87
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lake Forest28
Zip codes with a Lake Forest address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lake Forest — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.