Shelbyville, Illinois

The county seat, the gateway to Lake Shelbyville, and the town most of the market around here runs through.

Things to do: attractions, trails, events →

Shelbyville is a county seat with a lake at its doorstep, a manufacturing payroll behind it, a trail system that connects the two, and a community that decorates the whole town for scarecrows in October and lights the park by hand in December. It is the anchor of Shelby County for good reason.

It is also the deepest housing market in the county by some distance — the one town where a buyer has genuine choice and a seller has genuine comparables — with historic homes near downtown, mid-century neighborhoods, lake-access property north of town and rural acreage in every direction.

Where it sits

Shelbyville is the seat of Shelby County, a city of a little under five thousand people on the Kaskaskia River, about thirty minutes from Decatur, Mattoon and Effingham. Springfield and Champaign are a little over an hour; I-57 and I-70 are each about thirty minutes. The courthouse, the treasurer and the recorder are all here, which is why nearly every property transaction in the county passes through town whether or not the house is in it.

Founded in 1827 and named for the Revolutionary War hero and Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby, it grew from a river-crossing cabin into the courthouse town where Abraham Lincoln argued cases on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Today it is best known as the gateway to Lake Shelbyville, but it is also a working manufacturing town, the home of the county's only hospital, and a place that throws a festival for every season.

Lake Shelbyville

The Corps of Engineers dam on the Kaskaskia sits at the city's north edge, and the lake behind it covers more than eleven thousand water acres with some 172 miles of shoreline. There are three public beaches, three marinas, numerous launch ramps and two state parks, Eagle Creek and Wolf Creek, along with a long list of Corps campgrounds and recreation areas. The Corps visitor center on the east side of the dam covers the lake's wildlife and history. Crappie, walleye, bass and muskie draw anglers from across the Midwest, and the south end is close enough that residents can be on the water within minutes of leaving work.

Worth understanding before you shop the lake: Shelbyville is the south end, where the dam is, and Sullivan is the town at the north end. The Corps owns the shoreline, so there is very little true water frontage to buy. What people mean by "on the lake" here is proximity — to the marinas, the ramps and the state park access — rather than a deed that reaches the water.

The General Dacey Trail

Opened in 2006 and built in phases since, the General Dacey Trail is a national recreation trail for walkers, runners and cyclists that links downtown, Forest Park, the Dam West Recreation Area and the Shelbyville Dam Overlook, with views of the lake along the way and a fifteen-station outdoor fitness area on the lower shelf below the overlook. Sections are fully accessible for strollers and wheelchairs.

The trail hosts the Tom Short 5K each August and volunteer-run candlelight winter walks with bonfires and hot cider, and the volunteer committee behind it has become one of the community's most effective partnership builders.

Forest Park

Shelbyville's signature municipal park holds the 1903 Chautauqua Auditorium, one of the largest of its kind still standing, plus the Family Aquatic Center, the Crystal Lake fishing lagoon, ball diamonds, soccer fields, disc golf, a skate park, a pump track, the Ann Arbor Museum, and Vietnam and Korean War memorials. The Memorial Sunken Garden has been revitalized and remains the prettiest spot in town for a wedding photo or a quiet bench.

Forest Bark, the dog park, gives residents a fenced place to let dogs run, and the back of the park opens directly onto the Dacey Trail.

Employers

Shelbyville has a real industrial base for a town its size. Graphic Packaging International runs a major plant here, IHI Turbo America manufactures turbochargers for the automotive market, and SSI rounds out the three largest private employers, alongside HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital, the school district, county government and the ag economy of the surrounding townships.

That mix of manufacturing, healthcare and public-sector jobs gives the housing market a stable base that pure lake towns lack.

Downtown and dining

The historic downtown around the 1885 courthouse has seen real reinvestment. The Foxmore, a restoration of two 1893 buildings on East Main, combines a wedding and event venue with an eight-room boutique lodge, and beneath it The Fox Den operates as Shelbyville's only speakeasy, serving craft cocktails in an intimate, vintage setting. The Reserve adds another option to the downtown venue and gathering scene.

For food, the Longbranch Grill is the standby for a sit-down meal, the Original Burger is exactly what its name promises, and The Takeoff, out at the airport, pairs a meal with a view of the runway and, on the right October weekend, hot air balloons.

Festivals

Shelbyville's calendar runs on three big events. Scarecrow Daze takes over downtown on Columbus Day weekend with a different theme every year; homes and businesses across the city decorate to it, and the weekend brings a parade, car show, quilt show, beer tent, music and kids' games, timed to coincide with the Touchstone Energy Balloon Fest at the airport.

In December, the Festival of Lights turns Forest Park into a drive-through display built entirely by volunteers, with the Victorian Village, Santa's Shop, the North Pole, Bethlehem, Candy Cane Lane honoring loved ones, and the Chautauqua Auditorium lit up as a carousel. The Festival of Trees runs alongside it, filling the park with decorated trees sponsored by local families, businesses and organizations.

The housing

Older stock, mostly. The town has a good deal of pre-war housing near the square and newer building farther out, and the two are farther apart in price than a newcomer tends to expect. North of town the lake adds lakefront and lake-access property, and there is rural acreage in every direction, at price points well below what comparable lake communities command.

More homes change hands here in a year than in the rest of Shelby County combined, which means it is the one town where a buyer has genuine choice and a seller has genuine comparables.

Schools and services

Shelbyville Community Unit School District 4 serves the city and a good deal of the surrounding countryside, Good Shepherd Hospital provides the county's only inpatient care, and the courthouse square hosts the county's legal, banking and professional offices.

District boundaries here do not follow the town line, so an address a few minutes out may or may not be in the district. Confirm it for the specific property rather than assuming.

Our listings in Shelbyville

For Sale

$159,900

413 W South 4th Street

Shelbyville, IL

3 Beds · 1 Bath · 1,008 Sq Ft · 0.12 Acres

Listed by Amanda Isley

For Sale

$724,523

1800 E 700 North Road

Shelbyville, IL

74.31 Acres

Listed by Matt Forcum

For Sale

$199,000

1509 W North First Street

Shelbyville, IL

3 Beds · 2 Baths · 1,850 Sq Ft · 0.26 Acres

Listed by Penny Hood

For Sale

$74,000

814 South 10th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 784 Sq Ft · 0.14 Acres

Listed by Debbie Cruit

For Sale

$144,000

516 S 10th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 2 Baths · 1,891 Sq Ft · 0.73 Acres

Listed by Debbie Cruit

For Sale

$29,900

220 N Wood Street

Shelbyville, IL

0.17 Acres

Listed by Penny Hood

For Sale

$59,000

515 W South 10th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 728 Sq Ft · 0.11 Acres

Listed by Debbie Cruit

For Sale

$60,000

LOT 7 1775 Road

Shelbyville, IL

6 Acres

Listed by Bruce Steinke

For Sale

$39,900

LOT 3 1775 Road

Shelbyville, IL

4 Acres

Listed by Bruce Steinke

For Sale

$39,900

LOT 1 1150 North Road

Shelbyville, IL

3.59 Acres

Listed by Bruce Steinke

Sale Pending

$349,900

2121 E 1500 North Road

Shelbyville, IL

3 Beds · 2 Baths · 1,512 Sq Ft · 9 Acres

Listed by Bruce Steinke

Sale Pending

$310,000

2439 E 1500 North Road

Shelbyville, IL

3 Beds · 2 Baths · 1,376 Sq Ft · 5.01 Acres

Listed by Amber Jones

1172 State Highway 128 Highway, Shelbyville

Sale Pending

$49,900

1172 State Highway 128 Highway

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 624 Sq Ft · 2 Acres

Listed by Penny Hood

Sale Pending

$49,900

601 W North 5th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 980 Sq Ft · 0.27 Acres

Listed by Amanda Isley

Sale Pending

$150,000

118 Main Street

Shelbyville, IL

0.04 Acres

Listed by Matt Forcum

Under Contract

$74,000

511 W South 10th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 784 Sq Ft · 0.11 Acres

Listed by Debbie Cruit

Under Contract

$69,900

613 W South 10th Street

Shelbyville, IL

2 Beds · 1 Bath · 744 Sq Ft · 0.28 Acres

Listed by Debbie Cruit

Every home we have for sale in Shelbyville

Schools in Shelbyville

Nearly every address inside Shelbyville is in the first district below. The others are here because they do take in some addresses with a Shelbyville postmark — mostly out in the country, where the district line and the town line stop agreeing.

Shelbyville Dist. 497% of recorded sales here
Okaw Valley Dist. 3022% of recorded sales here
Pana Dist. 8a small number of addresses here
Windsor Dist. 1a small number of addresses here

Ordered by how much of the town each one covers — not by any measure of quality, which is not ours to publish. Each name links to the Illinois Report Card, the state's own record, where the rating and the data behind it live.

Confirm the district for a specific property before it matters. We will check it for you.

Property taxes in Shelbyville

Across 305 recent sales here, the tax bill worked out to between 0.88% and 1.86% of what the buyer paid for the house, with the middle around 1.42%.

On a $140,000 house — about the middle of what sells in Shelbyville — that is roughly

$1,230 – $2,600a year

It is a wide band for two reasons worth knowing. The bill attached to a sale reflects the assessment made before that sale, so a house that sold for well over its assessed value shows a low figure here — and its next bill will not be low. And exemptions move a bill a long way: owner-occupied, senior, senior freeze and veterans exemptions do not transfer automatically with the house.

If your assessment looks too high

An assessment is somebody's opinion of what your property is worth, and it can be wrong — most often when a house has not sold in years, or when its condition no longer matches what the record says. The county Board of Review decides an appeal, and what it wants to see is evidence of market value.

That is what an appraisal is. We can tell you first, at no cost, whether the numbers even look worth appealing — there is no sense paying for an appraisal to find out the assessment was about right.

Ask us to look at your assessment

Appeal windows are set by each county and open for a limited period after assessments are published. Check yours with the county — we are not the authority on the deadline.

Recorded lately around Shelbyville

The newest arm's-length transfers the county has recorded nearby — the deed, not an estimate. Each opens the parcel's record.

Own a home here? We will email you when the county records a sale near it.

What has been selling

Closed sales in Shelbyville over the last three, six and twelve months. These figures refresh on their own; the writing above does not.

Closed sales by rolling window: the last three, six and twelve months
Window	Sales	Median price	Per sq ft	Days on market
Last 3 months	25	$156,000	$107	5
Last 6 months	50	$169,000	$103	6
Last 12 months	94	$147,500	$105	6

The full Shelbyville market report — by year, by size, and every recorded sale.

Elsewhere about Shelbyville

Official sources, in their own words. We link rather than summarise.

Shelby County
County offices — the clerk, treasurer, assessor and recorder.

Your Shelbyville contact

Amanda Isley

Broker Associate

Amanda has property on the market in Shelbyville right now and can tell you what is actually moving here — not what a website thinks.

Talk to Amanda

Own a house in Shelbyville?

You do not have to talk to anybody to find out what it is worth. Start with the number, and decide about the rest afterwards. If you do want to talk, it reaches Amanda.

What is my home worth?What it costs to ask too much

Both are built from closed sales recorded with the board and the county — not from an opinion about the market.