Moving to Dixon: Pros, Cons & What to Know
Moving to Dixon means moving to a real, distinctive Lee County town carrying two separate, genuine presidential historic connections, with honest, disclosed tradeoffs around population decline and property taxes.
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Learn moreA wholly distinctive dual-presidential historic identity
The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, where Reagan lived beginning in 1920, is a real National Register of Historic Places site open to visitors today. Separately, Captain Abraham Lincoln's volunteer company camped at Fort Dixon in 1832 during the Black Hawk War, alongside Colonel Zachary Taylor and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis -- a genuine convergence of three future US/Confederate presidents, commemorated by Dixon's own Lincoln Monument (base record).
A real regional-logistics and healthcare/government employment base
Dixon sits within the I-88 West and I-39 Logistics Corridors, supporting genuine distribution and warehousing employment, with healthcare and government as the region's largest employment sectors -- a real, disclosed economic base distinct from a single-employer company town (base record).
A real, disclosed, ongoing population decline
Dixon's population is projected to decline from 15,349 (2020 Census) to roughly 14,365 by 2026 -- down about 6.4% -- alongside a median household income below the Illinois statewide figure (base record).
A real, above-statewide-average property tax rate
Lee County's own cited effective property tax rate (2.61%) runs above Illinois's own already-high statewide average, a real tradeoff against Dixon's genuinely affordable home prices (base record).
Key takeaways
- Dixon's real dual-presidential historic identity -- the Reagan Boyhood Home and the 1832 Fort Dixon encampment of Lincoln, Taylor, and Davis -- is genuinely rare among small Illinois towns.
- Dixon's economy anchors on the I-88/I-39 logistics corridors and a regional healthcare/government employment base.
- Dixon's population runs a real, disclosed, meaningful decline, down roughly 6.4% since the 2020 Census.
- Lee County's effective property tax rate (2.61%) runs above Illinois's own statewide average.
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