Vernon Hills · Lake County · IL
Homes for sale in
Vernon Hills.
- Active listings
- 33
- Median list
- $515K
- Avg time on market
- 17 days
- Sold · last year
- 0
Map data, Mapbox / OpenStreetMap contributors
Active listings
33 homes on the market
About the community
Living in Vernon Hills.
Vernon Hills is a Lake County village of roughly 26,800 residents that incorporated in 1958 and grew out of the Hawthorn Mellody dairy land and the master-planned New Century Town development. The retail core sits at Milwaukee Avenue (IL-21) and Townline Road (IL-60), where Hawthorn Mall and the open-air Mellody Farm anchor most of the village's commerce. Students attend Hawthorn District 73 for K-8 and split between Vernon Hills High School (Community High School District 128) and Adlai E. Stevenson High School in District 125 for high school depending on address. Major employers in the village include CDW Corporation, Cole-Parmer, Rust-Oleum, and Zebra Technologies. Commuters reach Chicago Union Station from the Vernon Hills and Prairie View Metra stations on the North Central Service line, and O'Hare is roughly a 30 to 45 minute drive south. The Cuneo Mansion and Gardens, originally built in 1914, anchors the village's cultural footprint and is now owned by Loyola University Chicago.
At a glance
~26,800 residents
26,850 at the 2020 U.S. Census, with 10,346 households and a median household income of about $100,725.
Hawthorn D73 + Stevenson D125 / D128
Hawthorn Community Consolidated School District 73 covers K-8. High school is split between Vernon Hills HS (D128) and Adlai E. Stevenson HS (D125) by address.
IL 21 at IL 60
Milwaukee Avenue (IL-21) and Townline Road (IL-60) form the village's retail spine, with I-94 Tri-State Tollway access just east.
Hawthorn Mall + Mellody Farm
Enclosed regional mall and open-air center sit across Milwaukee Avenue from each other and together hold the village's primary retail base.
CDW headquartered here
CDW Corporation (Fortune 500 IT solutions) is headquartered at 200 N Milwaukee Avenue. Cole-Parmer, Rust-Oleum, and Zebra Technologies also operate in the village.
Metra NCS line
Vernon Hills and Prairie View stations sit on the North Central Service line, with Vernon Hills station 35.7 miles from Chicago Union Station in Zone 4.
Century Park + Big Bear Lake
113-acre Park District flagship around Big and Little Bear Lakes. Fishing pier, ice rink, gazebos, cricket pitch, and the Century Park Arboretum.
Cuneo Mansion and Gardens
1914 Italianate mansion at 1350 N Milwaukee Avenue, designed by Benjamin Marshall with gardens by Jens Jensen. Owned by Loyola University Chicago since 2009.
What’s close
Vernon Hills sits in central Lake County roughly 33 miles north of downtown Chicago, with its commercial core concentrated at the IL-21 (Milwaukee Avenue) and IL-60 (Townline Road) intersection. The village is largely a master-planned suburb of subdivisions, corporate campuses, and open-air retail wrapped around the Hawthorn Mall corridor, with Big Bear Lake and Century Park as the recreational anchor near the New Century Town subdivisions.
- Hawthorn Mall
- Enclosed regional mall on Hawthorn Center Drive between Milwaukee Avenue and Townline Road, anchored by Macy's, JCPenney, AMC, and Dave & Buster's. Multi-phase redevelopment underway.
- Mellody Farm
- Open-air shopping and dining center across Milwaukee Avenue from Hawthorn Mall, anchored by Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack, REI, HomeGoods, and Barnes & Noble. Opened 2018.
- Cuneo Mansion and Gardens
- 1914 Italianate mansion at 1350 N Milwaukee Avenue. Gardens by Jens Jensen. Owned by Loyola University Chicago since 2009 and open as a historic house museum.
- Century Park
- 113-acre Park District flagship ringing Big and Little Bear Lakes with a fishing pier, ice rink, gazebos, cricket pitch, and the Century Park Arboretum.
- Vernon Hills Athletic Complex
- 41-acre village-owned athletic complex at 300 Nike Parkway on the former U.S. Navy / U.S. Army NIKE missile site, scheduled by the Vernon Hills Park District.
- Corporate Woods business park
- Annexed in 1986. Anchors the village's east-side employment base alongside CDW's Milwaukee Avenue headquarters.
What it’s actually like to live here
Vernon Hills reads as a planned-community suburb in the truest sense. Most of the housing stock is in named subdivisions like New Century Town, Centennial Crossing, and Greggs Landing that were built in coordinated phases between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. New Century Town alone was planned for roughly 5,000 condos and townhomes built between 1975 and 1987 with United Homes, and it shares parks, paths, and the Big Bear Lake shoreline with the surrounding single-family neighborhoods. The village's median household income of roughly $100,725 and family-heavy household mix (about 56.9 percent married-couple households per the 2020 Census) tracks closely with its school-district draw.
Day-to-day life centers on the Milwaukee Avenue corridor. Hawthorn Mall and Mellody Farm for shopping and dining, Century Park and the Vernon Hills Athletic Complex for recreation, and Hawthorn District 73 K-8 schools plus Vernon Hills High School and Stevenson High School for academics. CDW's corporate headquarters at 200 N Milwaukee Avenue, plus Cole-Parmer on Bunker Court, Rust-Oleum, and Zebra Technologies give residents a meaningful in-village employment base. Commuters who do go downtown rely on the North Central Service Metra line from Vernon Hills station or the Prairie View station just outside the village.
Neighborhoods
Detailed Vernon Hills 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 Vernon Hills.
Boundary lines do shift. Always confirm in writing for a specific address before writing an offer.
- D73Grades Pre-K to 8
Hawthorn Community Consolidated School District 73
Schools serving the area
- Hawthorn Elementary North
- Hawthorn Elementary South
- Hawthorn Townline
- Hawthorn Aspen
- Hawthorn Middle North
- Hawthorn Middle South
Serves most of Vernon Hills plus parts of Libertyville, Mundelein, Mettawa, Indian Creek, and unincorporated Lake County. Roughly 3,500 students across nine schools.
- D128Grades 9 to 12
Community High School District 128 (Vernon Hills High School)
Schools serving the area
- Vernon Hills High School
Vernon Hills High School is the primary feeder for Hawthorn D73 graduates, though boundaries vary by address.
- D125Grades 9 to 12
Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125
Schools serving the area
- Adlai E. Stevenson High School
Stevenson's 42-square-mile district serves portions of 16 communities including parts of Vernon Hills. Some Vernon Hills addresses send students to Stevenson rather than Vernon Hills HS.
From the neighborhood
Around Vernon Hills
Real local creators on TikTok. Tap a tile to play it right here.
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@titibby01✨ Today is the day✨ Come see us at More Brewing Co in Huntley, IL from 3p-8p 💕 📚
@herefortheplot_xoHUNTLEY JUST GOT EVEN MORE CHARMING! ✨ Downtown Huntley has a brand new shopping destination and it’s the perfect place to kick off your holiday shopping season! 🛍️ Shops on Main officially opens
@itsabbysworldafterallAround town
What there is to do in Vernon Hills.
A handful of the places people who live here actually use. Not a directory.
- Culture
Cuneo Mansion and Gardens
Tour the 1914 Italianate mansion and Jens Jensen gardens, now operated by Loyola University Chicago.
- Shopping
Hawthorn Mall
Lake County regional mall with Macy's, JCPenney, AMC theatres, Dave & Buster's, and 120+ specialty retailers.
- Shopping
Mellody Farm
Open-air center with Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack, REI, HomeGoods, and Barnes & Noble across Milwaukee Avenue from Hawthorn Mall.
- Parks
Century Park and Arboretum
113-acre park ringing Big and Little Bear Lakes with a fishing pier, ice rink, and cricket pitch.
- Family
Vernon Hills Athletic Complex
41-acre village-owned athletic fields on the former NIKE missile base at 300 Nike Parkway.
- Food & Drink
Maggiano's Little Italy - Hawthorn
Lake County's only Maggiano's location, on Hawthorn Center Drive inside the Hawthorn Mall complex.
Getting around
Commute + transit from Vernon Hills.
MetraNCS line
- Stations: Vernon Hills, Prairie View
- Terminal: Chicago Union Station
- Distance: 35.7 miles to downtown Chicago
DriveBy car
- Routes: IL 21 / Milwaukee Avenue · IL 60 / Townline Road · IL 83 · US 45 · I-94 / Tri-State Tollway (just east)
- O'Hare Airport: ~30 min
- Chicago Loop: ~49 min
By the numbers
Vernon Hills taxes + market stats.
Property tax rates vary by exact township and assessor district. Confirm per address before pricing a purchase.
Property tax rate
2.83%
effective avg
Sales tax
7.25%
combined
Median sold price
$440,000
MRED · last 12 mo (302 sales)
Median household income
$100,725
ACS
How Vernon Hills got here
A bit of history.
Vernon Hills was incorporated on June 16, 1958, with about 123 residents living in a single subdivision built by developers Quinn Hogan and Barney Loeb. The land traces back to an 1857 farm and to the Marshall Field family's Hawthorn Mellody dairy operations, which dominated the area for much of the 20th century. For its first decade, the village was small enough that its government and police department operated out of a local motel until trustees purchased portable buildings in 1971.
The village's modern form took shape in the 1970s when Urban Investment and Development Company launched New Century Town, a planned community of roughly 5,000 condominiums and townhomes anchored by the new Hawthorn Center mall (now Hawthorn Mall), which opened in 1973 with Sears and Marshall Field as anchors. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Vernon Hills expanded through annexations including the Corporate Woods business park (1986), a 1,200-acre section of Hawthorn Mellody Farms (1988), and part of the former village of Half Day (1994). Mellody Farm, the open-air center across Milwaukee Avenue from Hawthorn Mall, opened in 2018 with Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack, REI, and Barnes & Noble.
The questions buyers actually ask
Vernon Hills FAQ
The questions I get most from buyers shopping Vernon Hills. If yours isn't here, text 815-355-0582, same-day reply.
- What school district is Vernon Hills in?
- Most Vernon Hills addresses fall in Hawthorn Community Consolidated School District 73 for K through 8, with high schoolers attending either Vernon Hills High School in Community High School District 128 or Adlai E. Stevenson High School in District 125 depending on where in the village the property sits. Hawthorn D73 serves roughly 3,500 students across nine schools.
- How long is the commute to Chicago from Vernon Hills?
- Vernon Hills station on the Metra North Central Service (NCS) line is 35.7 miles from Chicago Union Station in Zone 4. By car, the Loop is roughly 33 miles and a 45 to 60 minute drive depending on time of day. O'Hare is about 19 miles south and a 30 to 45 minute drive.
- What is the property tax rate in Vernon Hills?
- According to Ownwell's Lake County data, Vernon Hills has an average effective property tax rate of about 2.83 percent, slightly above the Lake County average of 2.73 percent. The average Vernon Hills homeowner pays roughly $9,229 per year in property tax.
- What is the sales tax in Vernon Hills?
- The minimum combined 2026 sales tax rate for Vernon Hills, IL is 7.25 percent, made up of 6.25 percent Illinois state, 0.25 percent Vernon Hills local, and 0.75 percent Regional Transportation Authority tax. There is no Lake County sales tax piece in the 60061 ZIP.
- Where do people shop in Vernon Hills?
- The retail base is concentrated at Milwaukee Avenue (IL-21) and Townline Road (IL-60). Hawthorn Mall is the enclosed regional center with Macy's, JCPenney, AMC, and Dave & Buster's, and Mellody Farm is the open-air center directly across Milwaukee Avenue with Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack, REI, HomeGoods, and Barnes & Noble.
- Who are the major employers in Vernon Hills?
- CDW Corporation, a Fortune 500 IT solutions company, is headquartered at 200 N Milwaukee Avenue. Other significant in-village employers include Cole-Parmer (laboratory equipment), Rust-Oleum (paints and coatings), and Zebra Technologies (barcode and label printers).
- What does the planned community label mean in Vernon Hills?
- Most of the village's housing was built in coordinated phases by master developers, starting with Urban Investment and Development Company's New Century Town in the 1970s, a roughly 5,000-unit condo and townhome plan anchored by the new Hawthorn Center mall. That DNA is why subdivisions, parks, paths, and schools tend to share design language and why Big Bear Lake is woven into the neighborhood fabric.
Nearby
Towns next to Vernon Hills.
If you’re cross-shopping the area, these are the places that border Vernon Hills.
Your local agent
Joe knows Vernon Hills
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
- Vernon Hills 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