Metropolis, Illinois.
Typical home $122,820 (+3.8% in a year). Paducah, KY-IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$273 (+73%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,460 +4%
- $118,361$122,820 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $13,630 +12%
- $109,190$122,820 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.
- Metropolis$645
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 29 years.
Typical home values in Metropolis, IL rose 3.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Metropolis, Massac County, Illinois
Metropolis is a city of 5,969 people in Massac County. Half its households earn more than $50,399 a year and half less, against $65,116 across Massac County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Massac County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Metropolis is a small city on the Ohio River in Massac County, in the far southern tip of Illinois. The people who live here are older than in many American towns, and most households own their homes. Incomes run below the county's overall, and more people live in poverty than one might expect, though homes are modestly priced and the daily drive to work is short.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, and in government. Among the largest workplaces in town are Harrah's Metropolis, Massac UD 1 Schools and Massac Memorial Hospital. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and almost everyone gets to work in person rather than from home.
Things to do. Fort Massac is an archaeological site in or beside town, and Massac Creek runs alongside it. A short drive away are the Tennessee River, the Rowlandton Mound Site and Fort Anderson. Winters are cool, with little snow, and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year.
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- 2,430households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Massac County had 2,853 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 68°. About 3 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brookport Dam weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Metropolis
- Harrah's MetropolisGaming330
- Massac UD 1 SchoolsSchool district217FTE
- HoneywellUranium oxide manufacturing210
- Solstice Advanced Materials USUranium compounds, not specified elsewhere by process, manufacturing210
- Massac Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital184FTE
- Turner Specialty ServicesAll other specialty trade contractors102
- Tutera Senior Living & Health CareSkilled nursing facilities80
- VestisIndustrial launderers40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,247 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Metropolis’ 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 Massac County and the Paducah, KY-IL metro.
Metropolis home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Metropolis$122,820
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Metropolis listings — 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.
- Metropolis28.31%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Metropolis66
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Metropolis15
Zip codes with a Metropolis address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Metropolis — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.