Homewood vs Park Forest

A side-by-side comparison of Homewood and Park Forest: population, income, housing, and more.

Homewood and Park Forest are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Park Forest has the higher population (20,898 vs 19,471 in Homewood). Homewood has the higher median household income ($96,522 vs $62,305 in Park Forest). Homewood has the higher median home value ($210,500 vs $106,200 in Park Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Homewood	Park Forest
Population	19,471	20,898
Median age	39.8 yrs	36.9 yrs
Median household income	$96,522	$62,305
Median home value	$210,500	$106,200
Median gross rent	$1,422	$1,341
Housing units	7,394	9,015
Homeownership rate	79.4%	64.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.1%	25.8%
Unemployment rate	7.1%	7.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Homewood	Park Forest
Population	19,112 → 19,471 (+1.9%)	21,563 → 20,898 (-3.1%)
Median household income	$74,450 → $96,522 (+29.6%)	$53,938 → $62,305 (+15.5%)
Median home value	$163,100 → $210,500 (+29.1%)	$73,600 → $106,200 (+44.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,156 → $1,422 (+23.0%)	$1,211 → $1,341 (+10.7%)

Homewood

Population

19,11219,471

Median household income

$74,450$96,522

Median home value

$163,100$210,500

Median gross rent

$1,156$1,422

Park Forest

Population

21,56320,898

Median household income

$53,938$62,305

Median home value

$73,600$106,200

Median gross rent

$1,211$1,341

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Homewood	Park Forest
Under 5	5.1%	5.4%
5 to 17	21.5%	19.9%
18 to 24	6.2%	8.2%
25 to 34	9.7%	14.4%
35 to 44	15.2%	14.3%
45 to 54	10.8%	11.8%
55 to 64	13.9%	10.3%
65 to 74	11.5%	11.2%
75 and over	6.0%	4.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Homewood	Park Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	42.0%	18.5%
Black or African American	44.5%	69.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	1.4%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.6%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	8.0%	8.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Homewood	Park Forest
No high school diploma	4.1%	8.8%
High school graduate	19.9%	25.4%
Some college or associate's	29.9%	40.0%
Bachelor's degree	26.7%	15.2%
Graduate or professional degree	19.4%	10.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Homewood	Park Forest
Drove alone	62.6%	76.7%
Carpooled	10.1%	5.3%
Public transit	11.3%	7.1%
Walked	1.7%	0.6%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	13.0%	6.5%
Other means	0.4%	3.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Homewood	Park Forest
1-unit, detached	78.7%	61.9%
1-unit, attached	0.8%	25.8%
2 to 4 units	6.5%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	7.2%	2.8%
20 or more units	6.3%	6.9%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Homewood	Park Forest
Poverty rate	9.4%	17.2%
Average household size	2.72	2.48
Mean commute (minutes)	32	34
Median year structure built	1962	1958