Union, Illinois.
Typical home $439,531 (+8.2% in a year). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,414 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $33,158 +8%
- $406,373$439,531 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $128,832 +41%
- $310,699$439,531 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.
- Union$2,307
- 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 Union, IL rose 8.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Union, McHenry County, Illinois
Union is a village of 551 people in McHenry County. Unemployment in McHenry County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in construction, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Union is a very small village in McHenry County, with a median age a little below that of many towns where older homeowners tend to settle. Homes here are worth more than in many places, and the share of adults with a four-year degree is on the low side. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July is warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in the building trades, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, or in shops. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and few people work from home. Across McHenry County, some of the largest workplaces are Northern Illinois Medical Center, Amazon, and the Woodstock school district, and unemployment in the county has risen a little over the past year.
Things to do. The Illinois Railway Museum is in or beside town, and the North Branch Kishwaukee River runs through the same stretch. A short drive away, the Woodstock Opera House is a theatre, and the Hampshire Forest Preserve is a protected area for walking outdoors. Geneva Lake is a longer drive away if you want a day by the water.
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- 16%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McHenry County had 98,058 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 31 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Marengo weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McHenry County
- Cusd 300School district2,847FTE
- Northern Illinois Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,246FTE
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage2,084
- IntrenPole line construction1,635
- Huntley Comm Sch Dist 158 SchoolsSchool district1,535FTE
- Woodstock CUSD 200School district1,226FTE
- Crystal Lake CCSD 47School district1,068FTE
- StrykerAbrasive points, wheels, and disks, dental, manufacturing973
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 261 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 36,753 people in all across the county; Union has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals 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
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Union’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 McHenry County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Union home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Union$439,531
- 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.
Zip codes with a Union address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Union — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.