A typical Mount Sterling home is worth roughly $131,000
Builders were permitted 7 new homes in 2025.
What kind of housing town is Mount Sterling?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
A typical home costs 2.2 years of income
Less than across Illinois (3.6 years). Try your own numbers below.
That covers a typical Mount Sterling home, with $75K to spare.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,050 a month here, $170 more than owning.
How Mount Sterling ranks on affordability →
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, Mount Sterling’s typical property tax (1.73% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,050
Renters already here pay a median of $604, so moving in tends to cost more than staying put.
Fair Market Rent a month, utilities included
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents by ZIP code (Brown County, IL): the 40th-percentile rent plus utilities for a standard unit. Median rent and renters: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
7 new homes permitted in 2025
Builders were permitted 7 new homes in Mount Sterling in 2025, all single-family houses, worth about $2.8 million to build. That's 3.5 per 1,000 residents, faster than across Illinois (1.6). Over the past 10 years, Mount Sterling has permitted 23 homes in all.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Mount Sterling's population fell by 19 even though 2 new homes were permitted. Homes are holding fewer people: households are getting smaller, or more homes are used part of the year.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 3 | 3 | 0 | $1.2 million |
| 2025 | 7 | 7 | 0 | $2.8 million |
| 2024 | 10 | 6 | 4 | $2 million |
| 2023 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $260,000 |
| 2022 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $605,000 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2019 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $210,000 |
| 2018 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $175,000 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2008 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $193,000 |
| 2007 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $90,000 |
| 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2005 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $104,000 |
| 2004 | 13 | 13 | 0 | $1.1 million |
| 2003 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $95,000 |
| 2002 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $65,000 |
| 2001 | 4 | 4 | 0 | $245,000 |
| 2000 | 17 | 2 | 15 | $1.2 million |
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
51% of Mount Sterling households own their home
Half of Mount Sterling’s homes were built before 1969.
Illinois: 67% own.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024.
Neighbors talk housing
What Mount Sterling buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center. Income, ownership, taxes and rent: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. New homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Listings link to their publishers. The calculator is an estimate, not a loan offer.