A south Morgan County farming village with its own K-12 school district, a deep Friday-night-lights tradition, and a real estate market where the buyer next door usually hears about a listing before the sign hits the yard.
Listings represented directly by Apex Realty. For the full Franklin MLS inventory, scroll down to the browse map.
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Franklin lies sixteen miles southeast of Jacksonville on IL-104, deep in the row-crop country of southern Morgan County. The village was platted in 1832, named for Benjamin Franklin, and has held steady around six hundred residents through most of its modern history. The defining feature of village life is Franklin CUSD #1, the K-12 district that fields the Flashes — a small-school athletic program with deep community roots and a Friday-night following that fills the gym for basketball season.
Apex works Franklin the way you have to work any village this size: by knowing the families, the multi-generational ownership patterns, and which properties typically transact off-market before they ever hit MLS. We've represented retirees downsizing within the village, families relocating into the district specifically for the school, and acreage buyers picking up farm-adjacent parcels south of town. The local buyer pool here is small and well-networked, which means a meaningful share of sales happen on word-of-mouth before broader marketing ever starts — but it also means a thoughtful agent can surface inventory that doesn't appear on Zillow.
Every street in the village, the school-side residential, the newer south-end builds, and the surrounding acreage and farmstead properties — all of it falls inside our active service area, with same-day showings.
Meet the Apex teamLive data from the RMLS Alliance MLS — every active residential listing near Franklin from every brokerage. Map and list view, filter by price, beds, or features.
Franklin has distinct submarkets — each with its own price band, character, and school feeder pattern.
The original residential blocks centered on Main Street and the small downtown. Late-1800s and early-1900s frame homes, modest lots, walkable to the post office and the school. The lowest-cost point of entry into Franklin homeownership and the heart of village character.
The residential streets closest to Franklin Junior/Senior High. Mid-century ranches, split-levels, and updated 1970s-90s homes. Strongest family demand because the walk-to-school setup is hard to replicate elsewhere in the village.
Scattered newer construction at the south edge of the village. Larger lots, attached garages, modern floor plans. The most consistently desirable inventory when listings appear, and the highest typical price points inside the village limits.
Farmstead homes, hobby-farm acreage, and the occasional working ag parcel on the section roads south and east of the village. Hunting access, pole barns, and larger outbuildings. Frequent off-market activity through the local farm network.
Franklin CUSD #1 runs a complete K-12 program out of Franklin Elementary and Franklin Junior/Senior High School, with combined enrollment around three hundred and fifty students. The district's small size means individual attention and tight class cohorts; the Franklin Flashes basketball and football programs have a long competitive history relative to the village's population. For families specifically seeking a small-district environment with a strong community fabric around the school, Franklin is one of the standout options in southeast Morgan County.
Franklin's housing market is small, slow-turning, and locally networked. Active inventory typically runs five to fifteen listings across the village and surrounding rural addresses, and a meaningful share of transactions happen before properties ever broadly list — through estate situations, neighbor networks, and the local farm community. The dominant demand driver is the Franklin school district, with buyers either coming back to the village they grew up in or relocating in specifically for CUSD #1. Secondary demand comes from buyers priced out of Jacksonville and Waverly looking for a lower entry point on a larger lot. When a clean, move-in-ready village home does hit MLS in the $90K–$150K band, it typically sees multiple showings in the first week.
In Franklin specifically, a serious share of transactions happen before properties ever broadly list — through estate sales, neighbor conversations, and the farm-family network. If you're a buyer waiting on Zillow to alert you, you're behind. Tell us your criteria and we'll work the local channels alongside the standard MLS feed.
For buyers, the play in Franklin is patience plus presence. The right home may take ninety days to surface, but having your criteria active with a local agent means hearing about it before the broader market does. For sellers, the lever is pricing right against a buyer pool that knows every property in the village and will not chase an inflated number — Franklin sellers who price accurately move; sellers who chase a number tend to sit.
The rural acreage tier south and east of Franklin sits inside a strong deer and turkey corridor, and parcels with pole barns, lockable storage, and timber draw interest from buyers as far as Sangamon, Macoupin, and Greene counties. When we list acreage in this footprint, we market beyond the local MLS audience because the right buyer often isn't local at all.
If you're considering Franklin — whether for the school district, the price point, or the acreage — the most useful next step is a candid conversation about current inventory, off-market activity, and recent comparable sales. Reach out and we'll put a real read together.
Franklin is a quiet south Morgan County village of about 615 people built around its K-12 school district, a small downtown, a city park, and a strong farm-family fabric. Daily errands run to Jacksonville (twenty-two minutes) or Waverly (fifteen minutes) for groceries and most services. The village itself has a post office, churches, a couple of taverns, and the kind of multi-generational community where everyone in the bleachers on a Friday night knows everyone on the floor. If you want small-village quiet with a real school identity, Franklin fits.
Franklin CUSD #1 — a complete K-12 district with Franklin Elementary and Franklin Junior/Senior High School. Combined enrollment around three hundred and fifty students. Strong Flashes athletic tradition, tight class sizes, and the kind of teacher-student familiarity that draws families specifically looking for a small-district environment.
Most active village listings fall between $70,000 and $160,000, with the demand sweet spot in the $90K–$150K band. Newer single-family at the south end of the village pushes into the high $100s. Acreage parcels with a usable home, outbuildings, or hunting access range $200K–$500K+ depending on land size and improvements.
Tight inventory, slow turnover, and meaningful off-market activity. Five to fifteen active listings across the village and rural addresses, with a real share of transactions happening through the local network before broad listing. Well-priced village homes in the $90K–$150K band move quickly when they appear. Buyers need patience and a local agent; sellers need accurate pricing.
Jacksonville is sixteen miles northwest — about twenty-two minutes via IL-104 and county roads. Springfield is thirty-eight miles east, roughly fifty minutes via IL-104 and I-72. Waverly is about ten minutes east. Franklin sits at the southern edge of the Jacksonville commute radius and the western edge of the Springfield commute zone.
A small rental pool exists — typically older single-family homes — with two- and three-bedroom units renting roughly $650–$950 per month. Owner-occupancy is high in Franklin and rentals turn over slowly. Apex doesn't manage rentals directly but stays in contact with the active landlord pool in southern Morgan County.
Within twenty-four hours in nearly every case. Apex's Jacksonville office is twenty-two minutes from Franklin via IL-104. We treat south-Morgan villages with the same showing-turnaround standard as in-town Jacksonville listings. Call or text and we'll have a tour scheduled the same business day.
Whether you're three years out or three weeks from moving, an Apex agent will walk you through the Franklin market — what's available, what's coming, and what you should actually pay attention to. No pressure, no obligation, just a real conversation.
Browse homes for sale and local market insight in the communities surrounding Franklin — all within Apex Realty’s Morgan County coverage.
