Burnham · Cook County · IL
Homes for sale in
Burnham.
- Active listings
- 14
- Median list
- $210K
- Avg time on market
- 31 days
- Sold · last year
- 0
Map data, Mapbox / OpenStreetMap contributors
Active listings
14 homes on the market
About the community
Living in Burnham.
Burnham is one of the smallest municipalities in the Calumet region, a roughly two-square-mile village tucked into the southeast corner of Cook County where Chicago, Calumet City, and Hammond, Indiana all meet. The 2020 Census counted 4,046 residents, and ACS estimates put the figure closer to 3,937 today. The village is split into two sections by Torrence Avenue and Burnham Avenue, with the eastern section ending at Brainard Avenue across from Chicago's Hegewisch neighborhood. Wolf Lake and the William W. Powers State Recreation Area dominate the western edge, giving this little village an outsized share of green space and shoreline for its footprint. Burnham shares ZIP code 60633 with Chicago's Hegewisch neighborhood.
At a glance
~4,046 residents
2020 Census; ACS 2024 estimate near 3,937. One of the smallest municipalities in southeast Cook County.
1.94 square miles
Total area, with 1.86 land and 0.09 water. Population density around 2,122 per square mile.
William W. Powers State Recreation Area
580-acre state park on Wolf Lake on Burnham's western edge. 419 acres of water, six miles of shoreline, bank fishing, ice fishing, waterfowl hunting.
Burnham SD 154.5 + Thornton 205
Burnham Elementary SD 154.5 runs one school at 13945 Greenbay Avenue for K-8. High schoolers attend Thornridge in Dolton, part of Thornton Township D205.
Median income ~$56K
Median household income $55,708 per Data USA. Median age 36.5, predominantly Black community with growing Hispanic population.
Median home ~$175K
Median sold price $175,000 in April 2025 per Rocket Homes, up 7.7 percent year over year. Affordable housing stock is one of Burnham's primary draws.
Hegewisch (South Shore)
Closest passenger rail is the South Shore Line's Hegewisch station on Brainard Avenue, just over the village's northern edge. Direct service to Millennium Station and South Bend.
Sales tax 7.00 percent
Combined 6.25 percent Illinois state plus county and RTA components. No municipal sales tax add-on.
What’s close
Burnham sits at the literal corner of three jurisdictions: Cook County, the City of Chicago, and the State of Indiana, with William W. Powers State Recreation Area and Wolf Lake forming the western boundary.
- William W. Powers State Recreation Area
- 580-acre IDNR park on Wolf Lake. 419 acres of water, bank fishing for largemouth bass, walleye, northern pike, and stocked rainbow trout in the Office Lagoon.
- Hegewisch (South Shore Line)
- Just over the Burnham line in Chicago. Direct passenger rail to Millennium Station downtown and east to Hammond, Gary, and South Bend.
- I-94 Bishop Ford Freeway
- Closest expressway, just west of Burnham. The 130th Street interchange is the practical entry point for most residents.
- Hammond, Indiana state line
- Forms the village's eastern border. Hammond's commercial corridor, casinos, and Wolf Lake Pavilion are minutes away.
- Calumet City and River Oaks Center
- Calumet City wraps the south and west sides of Burnham. River Oaks Center mall sits a short drive south on Torrence Avenue.
- Burnham Elementary School
- District 154.5 single school at 13945 Greenbay Avenue, K-8 for all Burnham students.
What it’s actually like to live here
Day-to-day Burnham feels less like a Cook County suburb and more like a quiet pocket of bungalows and ranches tucked between heavy industry, freight rail, and a state park. Housing is overwhelmingly modest single-family detached homes; the village reports roughly 1,633 housing units, about 58.5 percent detached single-family, with around 60 percent owner-occupied and 40 percent renter-occupied. Median sold prices in 2025 sit around $175,000, well below Cook County and Illinois averages, and the local rental market runs from roughly $750 for small apartments up through the $3,000s for larger single-family rentals.
Because the village is so small, daily life leans heavily on neighboring communities. Groceries, big-box retail, and chain restaurants are mostly reached by short drives into Calumet City along Torrence Avenue, into Hegewisch, or across the line into Hammond. The trade-off is a rare amount of open water and natural shoreline for a Chicago-area village. Wolf Lake and the Powers State Recreation Area put a 580-acre park with 419 acres of water at residents' doorstep, with bank fishing, boating, ice fishing in winter, and seasonal waterfowl hunting. Burnham's tax bills tend to run higher than the national median in percentage terms, a known issue across the Cook County south suburbs, but lower in absolute dollars because home values are modest.
Neighborhoods
Detailed Burnham community pages coming soon.
Browse the listings above. Detailed neighborhood pages with market stats, school info, and lifestyle take-downs land here as we roll them out.
Schools
Districts serving Burnham.
Boundary lines do shift. Always confirm in writing for a specific address before writing an offer.
- SD154.5Grades Pre-K - 8
Burnham Elementary School District 154.5
Schools serving the area
- Burnham Elementary School
Single-school district at 13945 Greenbay Avenue serving all Burnham K-8 students.
- D205Grades 9 - 12
Thornton Township High School District 205
Schools serving the area
- Thornridge High School (Dolton)
- Thornton Township High School (Harvey)
- Thornwood High School (South Holland)
Burnham students primarily attend Thornridge High School in Dolton, part of Thornton Township District 205 along with Thornton in Harvey and Thornwood in South Holland.
Around town
What there is to do in Burnham.
A handful of the places people who live here actually use. Not a directory.
- Parks
William W. Powers State Recreation Area
IDNR park on Wolf Lake spanning 580 acres (419 of water). Bank fishing, boating with a 10 HP motor limit, ice fishing, and waterfowl hunting in season.
- Parks
Wolf Lake fishing
Illinois portion is stocked with largemouth bass, channel catfish, walleye, and northern pike. The Office Lagoon receives rainbow trout under the Inland Trout Program.
- Parks
Wolf Lake bank fishing trails
Roughly six miles of shoreline are open to bank anglers inside the state recreation area, with multiple picnic spots and benches along the way.
- Family
Hegewisch (nearby in Chicago)
Adjacent Chicago neighborhood just over Brainard Avenue. Restaurants, taverns, and the South Shore train station serving Millennium Station and northwest Indiana.
- Shopping
River Oaks Center (Calumet City)
South suburbs' largest enclosed mall, just south of Burnham along Torrence Avenue. 80-plus retailers anchored by Macy's and JCPenney.
- Culture
Burnham Village government
Municipal services, fire and police, and community event listings for residents of the village.
Getting around
Commute + transit from Burnham.
DriveBy car
- Routes: Torrence Avenue · Burnham Avenue · Brainard Avenue · I-94 (Bishop Ford Freeway) · I-80/I-94 (Kingery Expressway)
- Chicago Loop: ~28 min
- Hammond, IN: ~10 min
- O'Hare Airport: ~50 min
By the numbers
Burnham taxes + market stats.
Property tax rates vary by exact township and assessor district. Confirm per address before pricing a purchase.
Property tax rate
3.89%
effective avg
Sales tax
7.00%
combined
Median sold price
$162,500
MRED · last 12 mo (24 sales)
Median household income
$55,708
ACS
How Burnham got here
A bit of history.
Burnham traces its origins to 1883, when a group of investors that included Pullman Palace Car Company founder George Pullman hired surveyor Telford Burnham to lay out a commercial and residential plat at the south end of Lake Calumet, anticipating growth from the booming Calumet-region steel industry. The village was named for Telford Burnham, not the more famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, and developed as a small working-class settlement straddling the Illinois-Indiana line. By 1920 the village still counted only 795 residents, but its location, just outside Chicago's reach and on the Indiana border, was about to give it a reputation far larger than its population.
During Prohibition, Burnham became infamous as a wide-open roadhouse town under Boy Mayor John Johnny Patton, first elected in 1908 at age 24. Patton openly told the Chicago Tribune in 1916 that Burnham was open all night, all Sunday, all any time for anyone wanting a drink or a dance. The Torrio-Capone outfit took advantage by operating breweries and at least half a dozen roadhouses with gambling, prostitution, and alcohol in and around the village. A federal prosecutor called Burnham the leper of Illinois. The roadhouse era faded with Prohibition's end, and Burnham settled into life as a quiet bedroom community. In 1947 the state established what is now the William W. Powers State Recreation Area on Wolf Lake, giving the village a permanent piece of conservation land that today defines its western edge.
The questions buyers actually ask
Burnham FAQ
The questions I get most from buyers shopping Burnham. If yours isn't here, text 815-355-0582, same-day reply.
- How big is Burnham, Illinois?
- Very small. Burnham covers about 1.94 square miles (1.86 of that is land) and the 2020 Census recorded 4,046 residents, with ACS 2024 estimates near 3,937. It is one of the smallest municipalities in southeast Cook County.
- Which school district serves Burnham?
- Two districts. Burnham Elementary School District 154.5 covers K-8 with a single school in town at 13945 Greenbay Avenue, and Thornton Township High School District 205 covers grades 9-12, with Burnham students primarily attending Thornridge High School in Dolton.
- Why does Burnham have a Chicago ZIP code?
- Burnham shares ZIP code 60633 with the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago because of how the Postal Service drew delivery boundaries. It is still a separate, independently incorporated village in Cook County.
- What kind of housing does Burnham have?
- Mostly modest, older single-family homes plus some duplexes and a handful of small multi-unit buildings. Roughly 58.5 percent of housing units are detached single-family, about 60 percent are owner-occupied, and the April 2025 median sold price was around $175,000, well below Cook County and Illinois averages.
- Are property taxes high in Burnham?
- The effective rate is high (around 3.89 percent per Ownwell) which is typical for the Cook County south suburbs, but median annual bills are modest in absolute dollars (about $1,510) because home values are low. South-suburb bills jumped sharply in the 2023 tax cycle, so recent buyers should review current bills carefully.
- How do residents get into the city or to the airports?
- By car, the Bishop Ford Freeway (I-94) is just west of town, with the 130th Street interchange providing the closest entry, and the Chicago Loop is about 21 miles and roughly 28 minutes off-peak. For transit, the South Shore Line at Hegewisch station (on Brainard Avenue, 2 to 3 miles from central Burnham) runs to Millennium Station and east to Hammond, Gary, and South Bend.
- What is there to do in Burnham itself?
- The marquee attraction is the William W. Powers State Recreation Area on Wolf Lake, which offers fishing (bass, walleye, northern pike, catfish, stocked rainbow trout in the Office Lagoon), boating with a 10 HP motor limit, ice fishing in winter, and waterfowl hunting in season. Most other day-to-day dining and shopping is handled in adjacent Calumet City, Hegewisch, or Hammond, Indiana.
Nearby
Towns next to Burnham.
If you’re cross-shopping the area, these are the places that border Burnham.
Your local agent
Joe knows Burnham
Most agents will list anything. I focus on the communities I actually know, and the details that determine resale value here aren't in the MLS write-up: which lots back to open space, which streets carry the most consistent demand, which floor plans buyers ask for by name, and what each HOA actually covers.
When you're ready to tour or list, you want someone who's walked the streets, talked to the residents, and read the last 50 closed comps in this market specifically. That's how I work. Text or call any time, and I'll give you a real take, not a brochure.
- Lives in McHenry County
- Local specialist
- Burnham specialist
- Honest local market take
- Brokerocity
Thinking of selling?
What's your home actually worth?
Not a Zestimate. A real CMA from someone who's sold this neighborhood, knows the floor plan premiums, and can tell you which upgrades the buyer pool here actually pays for.
- Pricing range with comp-by-comp logic
- Pre-list improvements that pay back, and the ones that don't
- No obligation, no spam, no auto-dialer