Whiting, Indiana.
Typical home $205,672 (+1.2% in a year), asking rent $1,293 . Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$575 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,464 +1%
- $203,208$205,672 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $40,880 +25%
- $164,792$205,672 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.
- Whiting$1,080
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Whiting, IN rose 1.2% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Whiting, Lake County, Indiana
Whiting is a city of 4,559 people in Lake County. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Whiting is a small city on the Lake Michigan shore at the northwest corner of Indiana, with a population that has stayed modest and close-knit. More homes here are lived in by their owners than rented, though renters are a real part of the community, and incomes in town are on the lower side, with a noticeable share of residents living below the poverty line. Winters are cold, with January highs right around freezing, and summers are warm without being extreme.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in shops. Across Lake County, the largest workplaces include United States Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs Steel, both steel mills, along with Community Hospital. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than is typical, the commute is on the long side, and unemployment across the county has eased slightly over the past year.
Things to do. Chicago is the main draw, and most of what is worth visiting sits a longer drive away, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, a museum, and Millennium Park, a garden in the middle of the city. Closer to home, the Barack Obama Presidential Center is a museum a short drive away. Wrigley Field, a stadium, is also a longer drive away for baseball fans.
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- 1,525households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 191,579 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 67°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chicago Northerly Is weather station, 14 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lake County
- United States SteelSteel mills3,817
- Cleveland-Cliffs SteelSteel mills3,547
- Lake County GovernmentCounty supervisors' and executives' offices2,619
- Community HospitalGeneral hospital2,502FTE
- Methodist HospitalsGeneral hospital1,845FTE
- School City of HammondSchool district1,718FTE
- bp Whiting RefineryPetroleum refineries1,558
- Crown Point Community School CorpSchool district1,215FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 396 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 61,059 people in all across the county; Whiting has one 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Whiting’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Lake County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Whiting home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Whiting$205,672
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Whiting 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.
- Whiting30.69%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Whiting25
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Whiting7
Zip codes with a Whiting address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Whiting — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.