Prophetstown, Illinois.
Typical home $170,587 (+7.7% in a year). Sterling, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$469 (+110%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,124 +8%
- $158,463$170,587 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,463 +33%
- $128,125$170,587 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.
- Prophetstown$895
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Prophetstown, IL rose 7.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Prophetstown, Whiteside County, Illinois
Prophetstown is a city of 1,946 people in Whiteside County. Half its households earn more than $65,125 a year and half less, against $67,500 across Whiteside County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Whiteside County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 4.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Prophetstown is a small city in Whiteside County, Illinois, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and homes are priced modestly. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a good deal of snow, while summers turn warm in July and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades close behind. The largest workplaces in town include the Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico school district, the nursing facility Winning Wheels, and the metal fabricator IMH Fabrication. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a short one.
Things to do. Prophetstown State Recreation Area is a protected area in or beside town, handy for time outdoors. A longer drive brings you to Morrison-Rockwood State Park, another protected area, and to the Wapsipinicon River, which suits anyone who likes to be near water. The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, also a longer drive away, is a short historical outing.
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- 716households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Whiteside County had 20,285 jobs in 2025, 4.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 32 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Morrison weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Prophetstown
- Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico CUSD3 SchoolsSchool district132FTE
- Winning WheelsSkilled nursing facilities110
- Allure of ProphetstownSkilled nursing facilities85
- IMH FabricationPress forgings made from purchased iron or steel, unfinished40
- Genesis IIIPlate work, fabricated metal, manufacturing26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 261 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Prophetstown’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 Whiteside County and the Sterling, IL metro.
Prophetstown home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Prophetstown$170,587
- 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.
- Prophetstown14
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Prophetstown address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Prophetstown — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.