Living in Belleville, IL

St. Clair County

Belleville is the county seat of St. Clair County and a real, genuinely distinct Metro East/Greater St. Louis market -- oriented toward St. Louis, Missouri's economy, job market, and identity rather than Chicago's, the same structural cross-state-metro pattern illinois.js documents alongside Ohio's and Kentucky's shared Cincinnati market. Belleville's median age (39.1) runs almost identical to the broader St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area's own median age (39.9), a real, direct reflection of that genuine regional alignment. Belleville hosts a real, substantial military and logistics anchor distinct from every North Shore or McHenry County market in this project's Illinois Tier B batch: Scott Air Force Base, a global mobility and transportation hub for the Department of Defense, sits in St. Clair County near Belleville, with MidAmerica St. Louis Airport (BLV) operating as a joint-use public airport on the base's own grounds since November 1997, served by Allegiant Air. Belleville's housing runs genuinely, substantially affordable -- a median home value in the $141,300-$158,463 range depending on source, well below both Illinois's statewide average and the national median -- though this record discloses a real, notable property-tax nuance: Belleville's own median effective rate (2.55%) runs meaningfully HIGHER than St. Clair County's broader average (2.03%), making the city itself a comparatively high-tax pocket within its own county. Belleville's median household income ($63,535) ran roughly 80% of the St. Louis metro's own figure ($80,196), a real, disclosed income gap this record states directly. Belleville's crime picture carries a real, disclosed tension: the FBI's own Crime Data Explorer shows Belleville's violent-crime rate running below both Illinois and national averages, while a separate aggregation shows its combined overall crime rate running higher than roughly 90% of Illinois cities and towns -- two real, distinct measures this record does not collapse into one verdict. The Cathedral of Saint Peter, the Diocese of Belleville's mother church and the largest cathedral in Illinois (original 1866 construction, rebuilt in Gothic limestone around that structure in 1956, modeled after England's Exeter Cathedral), anchors a real, distinct architectural identity south of downtown. Belleville's senior (65+) population share (15.5%-18%) runs close to the national average rather than meaningfully elevated, and this record did not identify a distinct retirement-community draw for Belleville -- the real, data-driven basis for this record's best-areas topic page rather than a retiring page. Illinois's real, statewide flat 4.95% income tax and its full exemption of retirement income apply identically here (see illinois.js).

Explore Belleville in depth

• Moving to Belleville: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Belleville
• Housing in Belleville
• Taxes & Insurance in Belleville
• Climate in Belleville
• Schools & Families in Belleville
• Healthcare & Safety in Belleville
• Pros and Cons of Living in Belleville
• Best Areas to Live in Belleville

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits movers prioritizing genuine housing affordability and a real St. Louis-metro job-market and cultural orientation over a Chicago-facing identity; military families and Scott Air Force Base-affiliated households drawn to Belleville's real, substantial proximity to the base and MidAmerica St. Louis Airport; and first-time homebuyers specifically prioritizing Belleville's genuinely low home values relative to both Illinois's statewide average and the national median.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for movers expecting a Chicago-metro identity or commute -- Belleville is genuinely, structurally oriented toward St. Louis, Missouri instead; anyone who wants one single, confidently reconciled crime-rate verdict, given this record's disclosed, genuine tension between Belleville's favorable violent-crime figure and its higher-ranking combined overall crime-rate figure; anyone assuming Belleville's low home values imply a correspondingly low property tax rate, given the city's real, disclosed rate running above its own county's average; and retirees specifically seeking a retirement-community-anchored identity -- Belleville's senior population share runs close to the national average rather than meaningfully elevated, and this record identified no distinct retirement-community draw here.