Illinois rental market data

Across 21 measured metros, the median home value was $189,667, median monthly rent was $1,133 and median gross yield was 7.1%. Macomb paired a $99,171 value with $919 rent and an 11.1% gross yield. Danville paired $98,569 with $881 and 10.7%, while Decatur paired $127,756 with $1,030 and 9.7%.

Tenant-income measures do not show the high yields coming from unusually high rent-to-income ratios in these three screens: the supplied ratios were 20.9% in Macomb, 18.6% in Danville and 19.7% in Decatur. That makes them useful acquisition screens, but the yields remain gross calculations based on rent and value measures; they do not deduct vacancy, taxes, insurance, maintenance, management or capital work.

Across all 102 counties, 255,625 people moved in and 284,311 moved out, producing net migration of -28,686, or -2.3 per 1,000 residents. The packet also reports about $5.5 million of inbound aggregate AGI and $5.7 million outbound, with an explicit gap of -$178,559. Across 21 measured metros, the median year-over-year job change was -1.2%; the measured range from the 10th to 90th percentile was -3.0% to 0.6%.

The counter-signal is local job growth. Burlington recorded 1.4%, while Champaign and Paducah each recorded about 0.6%. Those readings prevent the aggregate migration and employment figures from supporting a blanket demand conclusion. A target market needs to clear its own employment and renter-demand screen rather than inherit the state-level migration direction.

Among measured metros, the median was 2.3 months of supply, 43.5 days on market, a 28.3% price-cut share and a 97.9% sale-to-list ratio. The named slow screens were less liquid: Kankakee recorded 65 days on market and 3.5 months of supply, while Carbondale recorded 64 days and 4.1 months. Their sale-to-list ratios were 98.1% and 97.1%, respectively.

Champaign adds a supply-pipeline asymmetry. It recorded 2,816 permitted units, or 11.8 per 1,000 residents, alongside 3.1 months of supply and 46 days on market. Permits do not establish completed delivery, but they are material when testing rent and exit assumptions in that metro. The broader lesson is that Illinois' moderate metro median does not remove locality-specific resale or construction pressure.

Home values rose by a median 5.2% across 21 measured metros, while the rent index rose 4.8% across the 16 metros with rent-growth data. The supplied median rent-minus-price growth gap was -0.46 percentage points. The 10th-to-90th percentile ranges were 1.3% to 8.6% for values and 3.1% to 7.7% for rents, so the central readings remained positive despite the weaker migration and employment signals.

Local paths differed sharply. Rockford was closely aligned, with 9.0% value growth and 8.8% rent growth. Freeport recorded 10.7% value growth but 36.9% rent growth, an extreme divergence that should be validated rather than treated as a statewide proxy. These indices show market momentum, not the achieved rent or purchase price of a specific property.

Across 102 counties, the median overall housing vacancy rate was 10.7%, the median renter share was 23.2% and the median share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent was 42.5%. DeKalb County combined a 38.6% renter share and 5.1% vacancy with a 57.2% rent-burden rate, indicating a large renter base with substantial measured affordability pressure.

Different risks appear in the highest-vacancy screens. Calhoun County had 46.1% overall vacancy and an 11.3% renter share; Pope County had 37.8% vacancy, and Alexander County had 35.2%. ACS overall vacancy is not the same as leasable rental availability, so these figures cannot establish unit-level absorption. They do show why renter burden alone is insufficient evidence for rent growth or occupancy.

Across 102 counties, the median effective property-tax rate was 1.8%, with a 10th-to-90th percentile range of 1.4% to 2.2%; the median tax bill was $2,431. Lake County recorded a 2.6% rate and $8,923 median tax, while DeKalb County recorded 2.5% and $5,974. Those costs can materially separate gross yield from property-level net income.

The highest supplied climate-loss ratios were 0.394% in Alexander County, 0.391% in Calhoun County and 0.349% in Pulaski County. FEMA assigned inland flood as the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for 95 counties and earthquake for seven. Those counts do not overlap, but a county's leading label is not evidence that a particular parcel is exposed or that its insurance cost is known.