Marengo, Illinois.
Typical home $367,952 (+6.7% in a year). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,142 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $23,175 +7%
- $344,777$367,952 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $109,024 +42%
- $258,928$367,952 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.
- Marengo$1,931
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Marengo, IL rose 6.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Marengo, McHenry County, Illinois
Marengo is a city of 7,568 people in McHenry County. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in McHenry County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Marengo is a small city in McHenry County, Illinois, with a younger population than most places, and the people who live here are mostly younger than the typical resident of the country. More homes are lived in by their owners than rented, though a good number of households rent. Incomes in town run below the county's, and homes here are priced well under what many nearby communities ask. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in manufacturing, and in professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Marengo are Pork King Packing, Regal Rexnord, and the local school districts. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is a fairly long one, so many people travel some distance to their jobs.
Things to do. The North Branch Kishwaukee River runs in or beside town, a natural spot close to home. A short drive away are the Illinois Railway Museum and the Woodstock Opera House, a historic theatre. For a longer outing, Geneva Lake is a longer drive away, and it makes a good day out.
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- 2,719households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McHenry County had 98,058 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Marengo weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Marengo
- Pork King PackingMeats fresh, chilled or frozen, produced in slaughtering plants245
- Regal RexnordIndustrial controls (e.g., push button, selector, and pilot switches, manufacturing200
- Marengo-Union E Cons D 165 SchoolsSchool district187FTE
- Marengo CHSD 154School district97FTE
- The Sherwin-Williams CompanyPlastics material and resin manufacturing84
- MidSouth RegionMaterials recovery facilities63
- Sullivan's Marengo57
- Florence Nursing HomeNursing homes48
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 753 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Marengo’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 McHenry County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Marengo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Marengo$367,952
- 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 4 Marengo 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.
- Marengo22.97%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Marengo38
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Marengo13
Zip codes with a Marengo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Marengo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.