Munster, Indiana.
Typical home $353,820 (+1.8% in a year), asking rent $2,124 . Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$926 (+99%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,333 +2%
- $347,486$353,820 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,560 +17%
- $301,260$353,820 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.
- Munster$1,857
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.
Typical home values in Munster, IN rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Munster, Lake County, Indiana
Munster is a town of 23,894 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $110,187 a year and half less, against $71,493 across Lake County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 4.8% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Munster is a town in Lake County, Indiana, where most homes are lived in by their owners and household incomes run well above the county's. Residents tend to be older than in many places, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with a coldest month of January, while summers turn warm in July and rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and transport and warehousing also employing a good number. Community Hospital, Franciscan Health Munster and PepsiCo are among the largest workplaces in town. Commutes are moderate, and some people work from home.
Things to do. For a day out, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the best known museums in the country, and Millennium Park offers a garden setting downtown. Soldier Field, home of the city's football team, is another well-known stop. Each of these is a longer drive away.
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- 9,471households
- 50%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 191,579 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 28 inches of snow and 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Park Forest weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Munster
- Community HospitalGeneral hospital2,502FTE
- Community FoundationCentralized administrative offices879
- Franciscan Health MunsterFreestanding emergency medical centers and clinics576
- Franciscan Health MunsterGeneral hospital529FTE
- Franciscan Physician Network MunsterPhysicians' offices498
- PepsiCoSoft drink manufacturing450
- School Town of MunsterSchool district447FTE
- Jewel Food StoresSupermarkets and other grocery stores225
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 24 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,960 people in all. 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Munster’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 Lake County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Munster home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Munster$353,820
- Indiana$257,165
- 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 Munster listings, and the typical home goes pending in 24 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Munster31.26%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Munster24
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Munster91
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Munster29
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Munster$345,048
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Munster97.93%
Zip codes with a Munster address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Munster — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.