States · Illinois · Mercer County

Viola, Illinois.

Typical home $175,943 (+2.4% in a year). Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL metro.

What it costs per month · Viola $923/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$397 (+76%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $4,053 +2%
$171,890$175,943 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $16,570 +10%
$159,373$175,943 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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Viola $923 Illinois $1,553 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • Viola$923
  • Illinois$1,553
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 35 years.

Typical home values in Viola, IL rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.

Living in Viola, Mercer County, Illinois

Viola is a village of 869 people in Mercer County. Half its households earn more than $72,500 a year and half less, against $74,182 across Mercer County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Mercer County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 7.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.

People 869 in the 2020 census; median age 46.6
Household income $72,500 the median, give or take $10,893 · Mercer County: $74,182
Unemployment 3.6% Mercer County, August 2026; 4.8% a year before
Homes 92% lived in by their owners; 8% rented

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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Viola is a small village in Mercer County, Illinois, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in and the population is older than in many towns. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and homes here are modest in price. Winters are cold and snowy, summers turn warm, and rain and melted snow fall through the year.

Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, manufacturing and the building trades. Across Mercer County, some of the largest workplaces are the Mercer County School District, Genesis Medical Center - Aledo and Walmart. The drive to work is a fairly long one for many people, and a modest share work from home.

Things to do. A longer drive away, Wildcat Den State Park is a protected area of woods and bluffs, and Niabi Zoo is a good outing with visitors. The Figge Art Museum is also a longer drive away and suits a day in town. The Rock River is another longer drive away, for a walk or a look at the water.

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  • 402households
  • 19%of adults have a degree
  • 9%below the poverty line
  • 26 mintypical commute
  • 11%work from home

What residents work in

  • Schools, hospitals and social care27%
  • Shops (retail)18%
  • Manufacturing17%
  • Building trades12%
  • Government6%
  • Professional and business services6%

Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mercer County had 3,190 jobs in 2025, 7.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Weather through the year

Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 31° and 13°; warmest in July, 85° and 63° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 31° 13° F M A M J J 85° 63° A S O N D
Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 31° and 13°; warmest in July, 85° and 63° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 31° 13° F M A M J J 85° 63° A S O N D

Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 63°. About 22 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.

Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Aledo weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).

Largest workplaces in Mercer County

  1. Mercer County School District 404School district168FTE
  2. Sherrard CUSD 200School district147FTE
  3. WalmartDiscount department stores85
  4. Mercer Manor RehabilitationNursing homes75
  5. Genesis Medical Center - AledoCritical access hospital73FTE
  6. Arcadia Care of AledoSkilled nursing facilities55
  7. Novus AgChemicals, agricultural, merchant wholesalers46
  8. Meridian Senior Living623312 assisted living facilities for the elderly36

Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 505 people in all across the county; Viola has one 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

  1. Strong windVery high
  2. LightningVery high
  3. DroughtRelatively high
  4. Ice stormsRelatively high
  5. Cold wavesRelatively high
  6. Heat wavesRelatively high

FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Viola’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 Mercer County and the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL metro.

Viola home values

Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Viola $175,943 Illinois $295,943 United States $366,157
$150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 2018 2022 2026
  • Viola$175,943
  • 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.

JFMAMJJASOND
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
falling flat warming hot overheating runaway

Market heat, inside the city limits

Homes for sale

Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.

Not enough data to draw this yet.

Zip codes with a Viola address

A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Viola — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.

Zip codes in Viola