The fastest-growing K–12 district in our service area — a south-Sangamon-suburb district that has roughly doubled in enrollment since 2000. Glenwood High and a growing feeder system make Ball-Chatham one of the most-shopped districts in the Springfield metro. Here’s every active listing inside it.
Live MLS data — refreshed daily. Every active listing inside the Chatham District #5 boundary, regardless of which brokerage holds the listing. No iframe chrome, no signup wall.
Ball-Chatham covers Chatham village plus a large unincorporated south-Sangamon territory. Elementary attendance zones are drawn around the five buildings, while middle and high school consolidate the whole district.
Original Chatham elementary, near the village center. Walks the older Chatham neighborhoods — ranches, brick split-levels, mature lots.
Homes in zone →Across town from Ball, serves the second half of Chatham village proper. Tightly drawn boundary — a few blocks can swing the zone.
Homes in zone →Serves the Glenwood tract south of Chatham. Newer construction, larger lots, and the most recent build-out of the district’s housing stock.
Homes in zone →A district-wide intermediate building — fourth and fifth graders from all three elementaries consolidate here for the upper-elementary years.
Homes in zone →The district’s only middle school. Pulls every D#5 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grader from all elementaries.
Homes in zone →Ball-Chatham Community Unit School District #5 covers the village of Chatham plus a large unincorporated south-Sangamon territory that has roughly doubled in residential build-out since the year 2000. About 4,800 students attend district schools, which makes it the second-largest district in our coverage area after Springfield.
The district runs three K–3 elementaries (Ball, Chatham, Glenwood), a district-wide intermediate building for grades 4 and 5, a single middle school for grades 6 through 8, and Glenwood High School. The consolidation pattern means address only matters at the K–3 level; by fourth grade everything funnels into the same buildings.
For buyers, Ball-Chatham’s defining trait is steady, ongoing growth. The district has added wings and new buildings repeatedly in the last 15 years and is still in build-out mode on the south and east edges. New construction inventory dominates the Glenwood Elementary zone; the older Chatham village blocks (feeding Ball and Chatham Elementary) turn over more slowly and tend to draw multiple offers when they do.
Glenwood High School is one of the most-shopped high schools in the Springfield metro — consistently strong on state assessments, graduation rates, and athletic recognition. That reputation supports a real price premium versus Springfield D#186 equivalents. Plan around the address you buy: open-enrollment from outside the district is reviewed case-by-case and is rarely a reliable backup plan.
Once kids move past elementary, the whole district consolidates. By high school, address stops mattering.
The district’s only high school — a Central State Eight conference school with strong academics, a deep extracurricular roster, and one of the most consistently competitive sports programs in central Illinois. Sits on Plummer Boulevard.
View homes feeding GHS →Springfield private schools. Many Chatham families enroll their kids at Sacred Heart-Griffin, Calvary Academy, or Lutheran High in Springfield. The 10-minute commute up Route 4 makes cross-district private enrollment feasible without moving.
Local PreK options. Ball-Chatham doesn’t run its own pre-K building — families typically use private preschools in Chatham or Springfield before their kids enter Ball, Chatham, or Glenwood Elementary for kindergarten.
District boundaries shift. Open-enrollment policies shift. If a specific attendance zone is load-bearing for your buying decision, confirm with the district office before you write an offer — or call us and we’ll do the legwork.
A district is more than a school. Here’s the neighborhood-level texture buyers usually want to know before they write an offer — the economy, the commute, the recreation amenity, the community feel.
Chatham is the closest thing the Springfield metro has to a quintessential American suburb — tree-lined streets, soccer-field weekends, a thriving village center on Plummer Boulevard, and a steady stream of new construction along the south and east edges. The village itself runs about 13,000 residents, with thousands more in the unincorporated Glenwood area that feeds the same school district.
Chatham’s economy is service-anchored and Springfield-tied: a substantial commuter base, a growing retail-and-dining strip on Plummer, the YMCA at the heart of the village, and Veterans Parkway development bringing additional commercial growth. The village has invested heavily in parks, the trail system, and recreational amenity over the last decade.
Three meaningful sub-markets sit inside Ball-Chatham. The original Chatham village blocks (feeding Ball and Chatham Elementary) walk to downtown and the village center — ranch and brick split-level inventory, mature canopy, slow turnover when listings appear. The Glenwood Estates and Glenwood-South sections feed Glenwood Elementary and offer newer construction on larger lots. The newest construction sits south of Veterans Parkway and east of the village core.
Buyers shopping Ball-Chatham are usually weighing it against Rochester, Williamsville-Sherman, or Auburn. Versus those alternatives, Chatham offers the deepest inventory, the most amenity, the highest school-driven demand — and the highest price premium per square foot. The trade-off is paying for the school district’s reputation. For many buyers, that’s the right trade.
All three K–3 buildings (Ball, Chatham, Glenwood Elementary) post comparable state report-card numbers, and the district reinvests evenly. The more meaningful question is neighborhood character: Glenwood pulls newer construction and larger lots; Ball walks older mature-tree streets; Chatham Elementary catches a mix of both.
Yes. Enrollment has roughly doubled since the year 2000 and the district has added an intermediate building, a new middle school wing, and is in continuous build-out mode. Expect new construction inventory to continue dominating Glenwood-zone listings.
Glenwood consistently ranks among the top public high schools in central Illinois on state assessment scores and graduation rates. The trade-off versus a Springfield D#186 magnet program is breadth of programs — Glenwood is a single building, not a three-school system, so program depth is narrower.
Generally higher per square foot than comparable Springfield neighborhoods, especially in newer Glenwood-zone construction. The price premium reflects district demand — Chatham consistently shows up on best-suburb lists for the Springfield metro.
Ball-Chatham CUSD #5 posts state-report-card numbers consistent with peer central-Illinois unit districts of similar size. The honest answer is that “good” depends on what you’re optimizing for — program breadth, athletic depth, small-school community, college-prep pipeline, or dual-credit access. We can walk you through the specific metrics that matter for your family’s situation, and we’re happy to share the district’s most recent Illinois Report Card on request.
Property tax rates in Ball-Chatham reflect a combination of the school district levy, county, township, library, fire-district, and other local taxing bodies. Effective rates in central Illinois generally run between 2.0–2.8% of fair market value, with the school portion typically the largest single line. We can pull the exact prior-year tax bill for any specific property you’re considering and walk you through what to expect at closing.
The district office publishes an official boundary map and can confirm any specific address by parcel ID. We always verify district and attendance-zone status before recommending an offer — especially on properties near a boundary line, where one street can swing the school. If you give us an address, we’ll have an answer within the same business day.
Plain-English guides written by Apex agents — useful context as you weigh a buying or selling decision in this district.
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Read on the Apex blog →Ball-Chatham is the most-shopped district in the Springfield metro and one of the harder ones to time a listing in. Talk to us before a move-in date forces your hand.
