Winnetka, Illinois.
Typical home $1,936,588 (+14.6% in a year). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$6,231 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $247,406 +15%
- $1,689,183$1,936,588 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $676,691 +54%
- $1,259,897$1,936,588 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.
- Winnetka$10,165
- Illinois$1,553
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 8 years.
Typical home values in Winnetka, IL rose 14.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Winnetka, Cook County, Illinois
Winnetka is a village of 12,744 people in Cook County. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Cook County was 5.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in finance and property, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Winnetka is a village in Cook County, and it is a place where nearly every home is lived in by its owners. Households here have incomes well above the county's, very few residents live below the poverty line, and almost all adults hold a four-year degree. The population is on the older side compared with many communities, and home values are among the highest anywhere. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and highs staying around freezing, while July brings warm summer days. Rain and melted snow fall through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in banks, insurance and property, in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in manufacturing. The commute is a fairly long one, and a good number of people work from home. Across Cook County, some of the largest workplaces are Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools district. Unemployment across the county has risen a little over the past year, while the number of jobs has edged up.
Things to do. The Chicago Botanic Garden is a botanical garden a short drive away, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, also a short drive away, is a museum that offers a quieter afternoon. For a longer outing, the Art Institute of Chicago is a museum a longer drive away, and Wrigley Field is a stadium a longer drive away for those who like a ball game.
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- 4,172households
- 87%of adults have a degree
- 2%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 29%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cook County had 2,594,810 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 34 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chicago Botanic Garden weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cook County
- Chicago Public Schools Dist 299School district37,732FTE
- University of Illinois ChicagoUniversity or college14,460
- University of ChicagoUniversity or college13,622
- Northwestern UniversityUniversity or college11,742
- University of Chicago HospitalsGeneral hospital9,616FTE
- Northwestern Medical GroupMds' offices9,478
- Rush University Medical CenterGeneral hospital9,416FTE
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services8,403
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3,702 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 793,086 people in all across the county; Winnetka has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of WinnetkaRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Winnetka’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 Cook County and the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro.
Winnetka home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Winnetka$1,936,588
- Illinois$295,943
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 8 Winnetka 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.
- Winnetka12.57%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Winnetka26
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Winnetka12
Zip codes with a Winnetka address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Winnetka — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.