Biggest Boomtown in Illinois Defying the State’s Shrinking Trends

You have no doubt heard that many have chosen to move away from Illinois in a mass exodus. There's one place in Illinois that is defying all of those shrinking narratives and trends and it's just been named the biggest boomtown in the Land of Lincoln.

What would make you consider a place a 'boomtown'? For Go Banking Rates, it's several simple metrics:

• Population growth in an area
• Income increase in a town
• Number or residents moving in compared to leaving
• How many own their home instead of rent

Based on many narratives commonly shared by the net, you'd think that no place in Illinois would have all those qualities, but you'd be wrong. There is one town in Illinois that has growth in all of those areas.

Yes, it's Plainfield, Illinois which is located in the southwestern part of the Chicagoland part of the state.

Here's how Plainfield, Illinois fares on the metrics for a 'boomtown':

• Change in population since 2014: 4,300 (9.6%) Population: 44,941
• Change in per-capita income: 32.6% Per-capita income: $53,441
• Change in occupied housing units: 1,946 (14.0%)
• Change in owner-occupied housing units: 2,220 (17.8%)

Sound like any other place in Illinois? Nope. Many other parts of the state have a net loss of residents who have moved out of state. It's the one area of Illinois that is bucking all of the other downward trends and let's hope it's indicative of what the rest of the state will see start to happen in 2025.