Monticello, Illinois.
Typical home $289,594 (+5.5% in a year). Champaign-Urbana, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$775 (+104%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,177 +6%
- $274,417$289,594 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $61,368 +27%
- $228,226$289,594 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.
- Monticello$1,520
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Monticello, IL rose 5.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Monticello, Piatt County, Illinois
Monticello is a city of 5,941 people in Piatt County. Half its households earn more than $99,449 a year and half less, against $94,811 across Piatt County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Piatt County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Monticello is a small city in Piatt County where most homes are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than is typical across the country. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and fewer people live below the poverty line than in many places. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold, with summers that turn warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, professional and business services, and manufacturing. Kirby Hospital, Niemann Foods and Viobin Products are among the largest workplaces in town. Unemployment in Piatt County is lower than it was a year earlier, and the county has added jobs over the past year. Most people spend a moderate amount of time commuting, and few work from home.
Things to do. The Monticello Railway Museum is in or beside town, a good stop for anyone who likes trains. Robert Allerton Park, a botanical garden, and Shady Rest, a park, are both a short drive away. For an afternoon further out, the Krannert Art Museum is a longer drive away.
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- 2,675households
- 41%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Piatt County had 3,776 jobs in 2025, 1.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Champaign Southwest weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monticello
- Kirby HospitalCritical access hospital247FTE
- Niemann Foods76
- Villas of Holly Brook - MonticelloAssisted living facilities for the elderly38
- Viobin ProductsVegetable oils made in crushing mills25
- AHWAg implement dealer21
- Illinois Central School BusSchool and employee bus transportation20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 655 people in all. Hospitals come 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
- Strong windVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monticello’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 Piatt County and the Champaign-Urbana, IL metro.
Monticello home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monticello$289,594
- 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 Monticello 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.
- Monticello23.97%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monticello28
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Monticello11
Zip codes with a Monticello address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monticello — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.