Counties / Illinois / Jersey County

Jersey County, IL

FIPS 17083 · population 21,274 · part of St. Louis, MO

$205k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$205k
▲ 3.9% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$846
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,218
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+43.2%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+3.9%FHFA HPI2025+7.3%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$172k
Surveyed gross rent$846
Rent burden 30%+40.0%
Median year built1975
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
20.0%vacant
9,958estimated housing units
Occupied tenure19.5% renter
owner 80.5%renter 19.5%
Structure mix86.8% single-family
Single-family 86.8%20+ units 0.5%Mobile home 7.0%Other 5.7%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs5,105▼ 2.2% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments383annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$912▲ 4.8% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities26.3% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−2.2%WEEKLY WAGE+4.8%Trade, transportation, and utilities26.3%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Jersey County’s tension is price appreciation against a weaker workplace base, net out-migration and inland-flood exposure. Buyers dependent on resale momentum should be cautious; further work fits only where rent and site risk can be verified. Zillow’s county median home value was $205,285 in 2026-06, up 3.87% year over year. FHFA’s repeat-transaction HPI rose 7.35% in its 2025 annual observation. It confirms Zillow’s direction, but is not a home value; periods and methods differ, so do not combine the rates.

02Housing economics

No county market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR of $1,218 per month is a payment standard, not asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The effective property-tax rate is 1.76%, and median annual tax is $3,020. These carrying-cost measures omit assessment treatment, insurance, repairs and financing, preventing a rent-to-price or all-in cash-flow conclusion.

03Demand & competition

Labor and buyer evidence temper the price signal. QCEW reports 5,105 annual average covered jobs at county workplaces, down 2.17% from the prior annual average; this is neither resident employment nor unemployment. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Net migration was -37 tax-return households, though incoming movers’ average income exceeded outgoing movers’ by $12,189. That does not establish tenant demand. Non-occupants accounted for 32 of 267 purchase mortgages, or 11.99%, showing some investor competition but not investor ownership or total housing transactions.

04Risk & next checks

The modeled climate-loss ratio is 0.17% of building value per year, aligned with inland flood as the dominant hazard; it is not a property-specific insurance quote. Realtor.com listing price, active-listing, marketing-time and price-reduction data are not published, so visible MLS supply and seller concessions cannot be assessed. Missing market rent, vacancy, lease-up, insurance, flood-zone, building-condition and transaction-level sale evidence prevents site-level yield, demand and hazard-cost conclusions. Verify those items before treating county patterns as property economics.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Jersey County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Jerseyville city7.4KBrighton village*2.3KGrafton city734Elsah village708Medora village*316Fieldon village200Otterville town126Fidelity village71
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

8 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Jerseyville cityIncorporated place
    7,445
  2. 02
    Brighton villageIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    2,306
  3. 03
    Grafton cityIncorporated place
    734
  4. 04
    Elsah villageIncorporated place
    708
  5. 05
    Medora villageIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    316
  6. 06
    Fieldon villageIncorporated place
    200
  7. 07
    Otterville townIncorporated place
    126
  8. 08
    Fidelity villageIncorporated place
    71

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.167% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.76%

$3,020 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-37

470 in · 507 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$12,189

$62,004 arriving · $49,815 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors12.0%

32 of 267 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; for a rent figure, the St. Louis, MO page covers the wider market.
Same metro

The other counties in St. Louis, MO

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Jersey County21,274$205kn/an/ainland flooding
St. Louis County995,569$293k$1,4776.0%inland flooding
St. Charles County414,535$378k$1,7005.4%inland flooding
St. Louis city288,512$187k$1,3948.9%inland flooding
Madison County264,238$202k$1,1777.0%inland flooding
St. Clair County253,694$181k$1,3218.8%inland flooding
Jefferson County229,458$298k$1,4846.0%inland flooding
Franklin County105,950$273k$1,1565.1%inland flooding
Lincoln County63,057$319k$1,7506.6%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Flood-zone status and insurance costs could make the county-level modeled loss ratio inadequate for a specific asset.
  2. Unpublished market rent and vacancy could overturn any assumed cash-flow case.
  3. Covered-job decline and net out-migration may not support tenant demand or resale liquidity.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. County market asking rent is not published, and HUD FMR cannot substitute for it.

Do the Zillow and FHFA price measures cover the same observation period?

No. Their supplied period labels differ, and FHFA is a repeat-transaction index rather than a home-value estimate.

What hazard requires property-specific diligence?

Inland flood.