Wamac, Illinois.
Typical home $41,816 (-3.2% in a year). Centralia, IL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$33 (+18%) since Feb 2021.
- 1 year
- Down $1,375 -3%
- $43,191$41,816 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $10,749 -20%
- $52,565$41,816 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.
- Wamac$219
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Wamac, IL fell 3.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wamac, Washington County, Illinois
Wamac is a city of 985 people in Washington County. Unemployment in Washington County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Washington County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wamac is a very small city in Washington County, Illinois, where most people know their neighbors and the pace is quiet. Homes here cost far less than in most of the country, and very few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers turn properly hot; rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and farming, forestry and mining also employing many people. Across Washington County, the largest workplaces include Nascote, which assembles automotive bumpers, Antolin Southern Illinois, which makes motor vehicle interior systems, and Washington County Hospital, a critical access hospital. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has gained a few more jobs. A typical commute is a moderate drive, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. The Big Muddy River and Raccoon Lake, a reservoir, are both a short drive away, along with Fan's Field, a stadium. For a longer outing, Carlyle Lake is a large reservoir a longer drive away, and South Shore State Park is a protected area that is also a longer drive off.
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- 372households
- 1%of adults have a degree
- 22 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What people in Washington County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 6,218 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 66°. About 12 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Iuka Southwest weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Washington County
- Nascote- Enterprise AveBumpers and bumperettes assembled, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing843
- Nascote - Mockingbird Road 2Bumpers and bumperettes assembled, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing281
- Antolin Southern Illinois, LLC (dba Antolin Nashville)Motor vehicle interior systems manufacturing208
- Nascote Industries - Mockingbird RoadBumpers and bumperettes assembled, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing148
- GDB InternationalPigments, paint, merchant wholesalers131
- Washington County HospitalCritical access hospital101FTE
- Nots Logistics90
- West Washington Co CUD 10 SchoolsSchool district79FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,323 people in all across the county; Wamac has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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 windVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Wamac’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 Washington County and the Centralia, IL metro.
Wamac home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wamac$41,816
- 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 Wamac address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wamac — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.