Northfield, Illinois.
Typical home $885,734 (+11.4% in a year). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,547 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $90,939 +11%
- $794,795$885,734 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $253,746 +40%
- $631,988$885,734 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.
- Northfield$4,649
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Northfield, IL rose 11.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Northfield, Cook County, Illinois
Northfield is a village of 5,751 people in Cook County. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Cook County was 5.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Northfield is a small village in Cook County where nearly all homes are lived in by their owners, a much higher share than across the county. Typical home values are well above what most of the country sees, and incomes are above the county's, with very few residents living below the poverty line. Almost all adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold and snowy, with January at its coldest and July the warmest month, while rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in manufacturing. Within Northfield itself, the largest workplaces include the New Trier Township High School District, Target and the Sunset Ridge school district. A good number of people work from home, and the usual trip to work is a moderate one. Unemployment across Cook County has risen compared with a year earlier, while the number of jobs has grown slightly.
Things to do. The Chicago Botanic Garden is a botanical garden a short drive away, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, also a short drive away, is a museum. For a longer outing, the Art Institute of Chicago is a museum a longer drive away, and Wrigley Field is a stadium in the city, also a longer drive.
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- 2,302households
- 81%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 30%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cook County had 2,594,810 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 34 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chicago Botanic Garden weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Northfield
- New Trier Twp HSD 203School district690FTE
- TargetDiscount department stores290
- Sunset Ridge SD 29School district99FTE
- Stepan Company NorthfieldBar soaps manufacturing95
- Kohl's59
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 444 people in all. School districts come 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 wavesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Northfield’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 Cook County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Northfield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Northfield$885,734
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Northfield 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.
- Northfield17.32%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Northfield23
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Northfield13
Zip codes with a Northfield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Northfield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.