Salem, Illinois.
Typical home $147,060 (+5.7% in a year). Centralia, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$427 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,875 +6%
- $139,185$147,060 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,649 +30%
- $113,411$147,060 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.
- Salem$772
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Salem, IL rose 5.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Salem, Marion County, Illinois
Salem is a city of 7,282 people in Marion County. Half its households earn more than $59,728 a year and half less, against $61,240 across Marion County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Marion County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Salem is a small Illinois city and the seat of Marion County, with a population at the smaller end for a city. Incomes run a little below the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is short, so most people spend little of the day getting to work. Winters are cold and summers warm, with modest snowfall and plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing a good share. Among the largest workplaces in Salem are North American Lighting, Walmart and Salem Township Hospital. Across Marion County, unemployment has eased over the past year, though there are slightly fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. Raccoon Lake is a reservoir a short drive away, the closest place for time by the water. A longer drive brings you to Carlyle Lake, a large reservoir, and to South Shore State Park, a protected area. The Vandalia State House State Historic Site, also a longer drive off, is a museum for anyone interested in the state's early history.
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- 3,122households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marion County had 12,335 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 67°. About 10 inches of snow and 46 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Salem weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Salem
- North American LightingMotor vehicle electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing1,078
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters280
- Radiac AbrasivesAbrasive products manufacturing220
- Salem Township HospitalCritical access hospital184FTE
- County of MarionCounty government171
- XPOFreight transportation132
- Americana OutdoorsFabricated structural metal manufacturing105
- County Prestress & PrecastPrestressed concrete products manufacturing74
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,619 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Salem’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 Marion County and the Centralia, IL metro.
Salem home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Salem$147,060
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Salem 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.
- Salem24.88%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Salem34
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Salem11
Zip codes with a Salem address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Salem — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.