Marion, Illinois.
Typical home $182,490 (+2.8% in a year), asking rent $1,112 (+6.3%). Carbondale-Marion, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$458 (+92%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,926 +3%
- $177,563$182,490 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $35,462 +24%
- $147,027$182,490 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.
- Marion$958
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Marion, IL rose 2.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Marion, IL rose 6.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Marion runs $302/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $459 in Oct 2023.
That is $1,415 a month against $1,112 rent: a $958 mortgage payment, plus $262 property tax and $195 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Marion
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$1,415
- Renting$1,112
- Mortgage only$958
Property tax · $262/mo 1.72% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Williamson County, IL
Insurance & upkeep · $195/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 Marion, Williamson County, Illinois
Marion is a city of 16,855 people in Williamson County. Half its households earn more than $56,912 a year and half less, against $65,604 across Williamson County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in Williamson County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 3.9% 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. Marion is a small city in Williamson County, in the southern part of Illinois. Its residents are somewhat older than the typical American, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run below the county's overall, and homes cost less than in many parts of the country.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Marion are the Veterans Health Administration, the Marion school district and Walmart. Commutes are fairly short, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. The closest outdoor spots are a short drive away, including Crab Orchard Lake, a reservoir, and the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area. Lake of Egypt, also a short drive off, is another place to spend time by the water. Winters are cold with some snow, summers are hot, and rain falls steadily through the year.
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- 8,260households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Williamson County had 29,573 jobs in 2025, 3.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 68°. About 11 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Carbondale Sewage Plt weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Marion
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,072
- Marion CUSD 2School district523FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters396
- Pepsi MidAmerica CoBeverages, soft drink, manufacturing363
- Deaconess Regional Healthcare ServicesHospitals, general medical and surgical356
- Williamson CountyCircuit courts275
- Williamson County Highway DepartmentOil field road construction275
- Williamson County Sheriff DepartmentSheriffs' offices275
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 32 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,686 people in all. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) 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
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Marion’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 Williamson County and the Carbondale-Marion, IL metro.
Marion home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Marion$182,490
- 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 3 Marion listings, and the typical home goes pending in 16 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Marion30.38%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Marion16
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Marion131
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Marion45
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Marion$188,864
- United States$371,407
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 Marion address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Marion — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.