Illinois

Home values #

Typical home $295,943 (Sep 2026), +5.3% over one year, +29.6% over five

• 32nd pct · 35th of 51 US states · median $348,778

Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), typical value of homes in the 35th to 65th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted; a model estimate of value, not a sale price. Data through Zillow Research.

Rent #

Rather than print an empty row that suggests a number could arrive, the rows are omitted and the reason is stated. The rent figures for this state's counties are on their own pages.

Jobs & wages #

5.99 m jobs at 389,406 employers (2026 Q1); 0.0% jobs and +4.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 90th pct · 6th of 52 US states · median 1,934,777

BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, all ownerships, total covered employment in the quarter's third month; over-the-year changes as published. Suppressed cells stay blank.

Affordability #

A 30-year mortgage on the typical home at 7.40% costs about $1,639 a month in principal and interest.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $295,943 × 80% = $236,755, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,639/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,731 × 52 / 12 = $7,501) = 22% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $295,943 / ($1,731 × 52) = 3.3

Estimate. Principal and interest on the typical home with 20% down over 30 years at this week's Freddie Mac average rate; compared with the average weekly wage of all jobs covered by unemployment insurance in the area (BLS QCEW), which is pay per job, not household income.

Trade gateways #

2 ports within 200 km, 0 land crossings within 250 km

These are the gateways near the state’s centroid, within the radii named above, not every port and crossing inside the state boundary. lib/economy searches a disc around a point; there is no clip-to-boundary path.

NGA World Port Index harbours (medium and large, or any with BTS statistics) and BTS Border Crossing Entry Data ports; BTS Port Performance volumes for the latest reporting year.

National pulse #

1 national series, latest 2026-10-15

FRED series (Freddie Mac, Census, BEA, EIA, BLS, S&P) and BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators; each item carries its own date and source.

Largest counties #

The 12 counties of Illinois with the most covered jobs.

Ranked by BLS QCEW third-month covered employment from the same nationwide table the screener uses. A county whose cell BLS withheld is absent from the ranking, not last in it.

Metropolitan areas #

12 metropolitan statistical areas lie wholly or partly in Illinois.

From the bundled place manifest, which derives its metro table offline from the committed BLS OEWS metro index. A metro that spans a state line appears on both states' pages.

Water #

Drought, reservoirs, stream gauges and groundwater wells are reported around a point, with every row's distance printed. That is a county page's section, not a state's.

National indicator context #

None of these series is keyed to this state. They are national, gauge, single-state or port series, shown as context for the numbers above.

lib/indicators has no geographic selection: every registry entry is a United States, gauge, Texas, port, crossing or world series. Reading these as this state's own readings would be wrong.

What changed #

Illinois: 8 findings, 8 noted

1. noteIllinois' average weekly wage was 4.1% higher than the same quarter a year earlier in 2026 Q1, on BLS QCEW's published over-the-year change.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +4.1 % = BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change for 2026 Q1, as published
   • the newest QCEW file carries no year-earlier level, so no move from one level to another is printed

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published

2. noteIllinois' typical home value rose 0.5% from $294,482 in August 2026 to $295,943 in September 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.5% = (295943.4277089596 - 294482.2032491152) / 294482.2032491152 × 100
   • 295943.4277089596 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-09
   • 294482.2032491152 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08

3. noteIllinois' momentum index of 0.39 ranks 3rd of 52 US states, against a median of 0.24.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 96 on the 0-to-100 scale across 52 US states that published momentum
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

4. noteIllinois' typical home value of +5.3% ranks 3rd of 51 US states, against a median of +2.1%.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 96 on the 0-to-100 scale across 51 US states that published home.yoyPct

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

5. noteIllinois' years of wages of 3.3 ranks 49th of 51 US states, against a median of 4.5.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 4 on the 0-to-100 scale across 51 US states that published yearsOfWages
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

The full Illinois brief, with the arithmetic behind every sentence.

Every sentence in the brief is written by a rule table in lib/brief, not generated, and each one can print the arithmetic behind its number.