Mason City, Illinois.
Typical home $127,920 (+18.1% in a year). Springfield, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$316 (+89%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,632 +18%
- $108,288$127,920 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $18,946 +17%
- $108,974$127,920 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.
- Mason City$671
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.
Typical home values in Mason City, IL rose 18.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois
Mason City is a city of 2,077 people in Mason County. Half its households earn more than $66,524 a year and half less, against $62,845 across Mason County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in Mason County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mason City is a small city in Mason County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Typical home values are modest, and household incomes run a little above the county's, though more residents than in many places live below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn warm, with a fair amount of rain across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades also employing many. Across Mason County, the largest workplaces include Mason District Hospital, the Havana school district and Midwest Central school district. Commutes tend to be long, and some people work from home.
Things to do. Revis Hill Prairie, a protected area, is a short drive away and a good place for a walk among native grasses. A longer drive reaches Lincoln's New Salem, a museum, and Sand Ridge State Forest, another protected area for time outdoors.
Report a mistake
- 1,054households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mason County had 2,829 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 65°. About 13 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mason City 4SE weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mason County
- Mason District HospitalCritical access hospital187FTE
- Havana CUSD 126School district143FTE
- Midwest Central CUSD 191School district105FTE
- Illini Central CUSD 189School district97FTE
- Clean Harbors76
- Arcadia Care at HavanaSkilled nursing facilities61
- Forman Fire Protection DistrictAmbulance and fire service combined41
- Farm & Home Supply HavanaHandtools, power-driven, repair and maintenance services retailing new power-driven handtools36
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 665 people in all across the county; Mason City has one of its own. 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mason City’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Mason County and the Springfield, IL metro.
Mason City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mason City$127,920
- 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.
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mason City12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mason City5
Zip codes with a Mason City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mason City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.