Illinois Featured Real Estate Market Areas and Agents

The fifth most populous state in the country, Illinois is a large state in the Midwest. It is home to a population of 25.8 million, with two-thirds of the population in northeast corner of the state near its largest city, Chicago, which is also the third largest city in the U.S. The state has the fifth largest GDP of the country. It is a large agricultural producer, with corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products and wheat grow and sold here. It is perennially among the country's top producers of corn and soybeans. Chicago and its surrounding area have both a large shipping and export industry based on its location on the Great Lakes, and a robust financial and professional industry in the city. The Port of Chicago connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River, and has been known throughout history as a great exporter of steel. Steel production is common as well. The southern part of the state is home to many natural resource industries, like coal, timber and petroleum. The state is known as the land of Lincoln, as it was home of the famed president, as well as the 44th president, Barack Obama. Springfield is the state's capital, and after Chicago, its other large cities include Rockford, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana, the southern suburbs of St. Louis, Joliet and Naperville.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in Springfield and is the largest presidential library in the country. The state is also home to such attractions as the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry, all in Chicago. There are two international airports in Chicago, O'Hare and Midway, as well as a number of other smaller airports throughout the state. Notable large, educational institutions include the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and there are a plethora of smaller schools, both public and private. The city is home to two baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association, who achieved great success in the 1990s with star Michael Jordan, and football's Chicago Bears.