Thomson, Illinois.
Typical home $156,825 (+5.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$488 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,674 +6%
- $148,152$156,825 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,890 +47%
- $106,935$156,825 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.
- Thomson$823
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Thomson, IL rose 5.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Thomson, Carroll County, Illinois
Thomson is a village of 1,610 people in Carroll County. Unemployment in Carroll County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 3.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Carroll County work in manufacturing, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Thomson is a village in Carroll County, in northwestern Illinois, with a population smaller than most towns people think of as small. Residents are somewhat older than the typical American, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Homes are modestly priced, and household incomes across Carroll County run below the state's. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July; rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Almost no one works from home, so most people travel to a job. Among the largest workplaces across Carroll County are the federal prison, Elkay Plumbing Products in Lanark, and Metform, which makes transmission parts. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year ago, and the county has more jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Plum River is a short drive away, and so is the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, a theatre for live performances. Ashford University Field, a stadium, is also a short drive. For a longer outing, Mississippi Palisades State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and the Apple River is a river a longer drive away.
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- 166households
- 4%of adults have a degree
- 1%work from home
What people in Carroll County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Carroll County had 4,081 jobs in 2025, 3.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 65°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fulton L&d #13 weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carroll County
- Bureau of Prisons/federal Prison SystemFederal government · Department of Justice184
- Elkay Plumbing Products - LanarkDrinking fountains, refrigerated, manufacturing161
- Metform LLC / Machined Components 1Transmissions and parts, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing144
- Metform LLC HotformAssembly line rebuilding of automotive, truck, and bus transmissions118
- Eastland CUSD 308School district108FTE
- Elkay Plumbing Products - SavannaDrinking fountains, refrigerated, manufacturing92
- County of CarrollGeneral services departments, government88
- West Carroll CUSD 314School district86FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,012 people in all across the county; Thomson has one of its own. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Thomson’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 Carroll County.
Thomson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Thomson$156,825
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
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.
- Thomson9
Zip codes with a Thomson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Thomson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.