Scott Air Force Base is the largest employer in Southern Illinois and a major driver of housing demand in St. Clair County.

If you’ve lived in the Metro East for any length of time, you already know Scott Air Force Base isn’t just a neighbor. It’s one of the reasons this county holds up when other markets don’t. A new economic impact study from the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois put a number on what a lot of us already understood: Scott generates roughly $12.9 billion in economic activity for the region every year, split between direct spending on payroll and housing allowances, indirect activity through local suppliers and contractors, and the induced spending that happens when base employees buy groceries, get their cars fixed, and eat dinner out in Belleville or O’Fallon. All told, the base and its ripple effects support close to 40,000 jobs across Southwestern Illinois.

That’s not an abstract statistic for anyone selling real estate here. It’s the reason St. Clair County has a buyer pool that most Illinois counties simply don’t have access to: a steady stream of dual-income military and civilian households with federal paychecks and housing allowances that don’t disappear when the broader economy wobbles.

The Communities Built Around the Base

O’Fallon, Shiloh, Mascoutah, and Belleville each play a different role in housing military and civilian personnel from Scott AFB.

Scott AFB sits just outside Belleville, and its influence radiates out into a handful of specific towns that anyone working with military buyers needs to know well.

O’Fallon, directly north of the base, has become the go-to for officers and senior NCOs who want new construction, good schools, and an easy commute through the Shiloh Gate. Shiloh, sitting right along the base’s western edge, offers some of the shortest commutes in the county and a mix of established neighborhoods and newer subdivisions. Mascoutah, to the south, tends to draw families looking for more space and a lower price point without giving up quick access to the flight line. And Belleville, the county seat and the base’s longtime civic partner (their Belle-Scott Committee dates back to 1949, the oldest continuous military-civilian partnership in the country), remains the most affordable entry point with the deepest inventory.

Each of these communities plays a slightly different role in the housing market, but they all share the same underlying demand driver: people who work at or around Scott AFB and want to live close enough to make the drive painless.

The Retiree Pipeline Nobody Talks About Enough

Many service members transition directly into civilian roles near Scott AFB instead of relocating after their military career ends.

Here’s the part of the Scott AFB story that doesn’t get as much attention as the payroll numbers, but probably should. A large share of the people who serve at Scott don’t leave when their military career ends. They retire in place, or they leave the service and transition straight into a civilian role on or near the base.

The numbers back this up. Recent estimates put more than 11,000 military retirees in the region who’ve completed 20 years of service and draw a full pension, and other counts push the total number of retirees calling the area home closer to 18,000 when you include spouses and extended family. On top of that, programs like the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge initiative, which companies like Boeing participate in locally, are specifically designed to move transitioning service members directly into civilian jobs in the same region where they were stationed. Add the roughly 3,500 civilian employees already working at Scott, many of whom are veterans themselves, and you get a pattern that repeats year after year: people arrive on military orders, put down roots, and never really leave.

That matters for a few reasons. Retirees and veterans transitioning into civilian work tend to be established buyers rather than first-time ones. They often have equity from a prior home, steady income from a civilian job or a federal pension, and a strong preference for staying put rather than moving again. They’re not speculative buyers. They’re the kind of homeowners who coach Little League, join the Belle-Scott Committee, and become the backbone of the neighborhoods around the base.

What This Means for the Housing Market

Steady demand from both PCS buyers and retirees keeps home prices more resilient around Scott AFB than in single-employer markets.

This retiree-to-civilian pipeline is a big part of why the housing market around Scott AFB behaves differently than markets tied to a single private employer. A factory closing or a corporate headquarters relocating can gut a local market overnight. Scott AFB doesn’t work that way. Between active-duty PCS orders bringing in new buyers every summer and retirees converting into long-term homeowners instead of leaving the area, the base creates two overlapping waves of demand instead of one.

You can see it in the numbers. Basic Allowance for Housing rates at Scott rose again for 2026, which puts more buying power in the hands of incoming service members right as they’re house-hunting. Meanwhile, the retirees and veterans staying local are competing for many of the same homes in O’Fallon, Shiloh, Mascoutah, and Belleville, which keeps inventory tight and pricing more resilient than you’d expect for the price points involved. It also means sellers in these communities are working with a buyer pool that’s larger, steadier, and less rate-sensitive than a typical Midwest market.

For anyone deciding whether to buy or sell near Scott AFB, that’s worth sitting with. This isn’t a boom-and-bust market riding on one industry’s mood. It’s a base with a nearly eighty-year history in this county, a workforce that keeps growing, and a retiree population that chooses to stay rather than cash out and move on.

For more on current pricing and inventory in these submarkets, see our latest St. Clair County market update.

Frequently Asked Questions About Scott AFB and the St. Clair County Housing Market