Best PlacesAurora, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Aurora, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Aurora ranks 223rd of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and state finances. It does better on heat safety, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Aurora
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Aurora's strengths and weaknesses
Aurora lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Heat safety, low disaster risk, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. State finances and taxes also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Aurora to another than it does between Aurora and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Aurora ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 89% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 86% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 85% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of cities
Where Aurora ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 3% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 17% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Aurora
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Aurora home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $100,831, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Aurora's effective rate of 2.12%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Aurora
Aurora runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Aurora.
Who works in Aurora, and how
Work in Aurora centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Aurora
Aurora has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of cities and more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Aurora and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Aurora, month by month
Aurora sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 24° | 17° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Aurora
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 25 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.8 million passengers in 2025, with 305 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Aurora
Schools across Aurora average a D+, better than 10% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- White Eagle ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Owen Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- May Watts Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thompson Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Francis Granger Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Thayer J Hill Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- St Charles North High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Metea Valley High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Waubonsie Valley High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Aurora school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Aurora measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Aurora against the other 444 cities.
Who Aurora suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 75% of cities and 16% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Aurora
Is Aurora a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Aurora ranks 223rd of 445 cities. It scores highest on heat safety, low disaster risk, and a stable housing market, and lowest on property taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Aurora expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $277,311. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $100,831 median income, cost of living beats 75% of cities.
Is Aurora safe?
Aurora is safer than 46% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $309 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Aurora?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 17. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 46% of cities.
Is Aurora good for families?
Schools beat 10% of cities, crime safety beats 46%, and childcare runs $1,418 a month.
Is Aurora good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 75% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 41% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Aurora with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Aurora. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Aurora represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Aurora detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Aurora: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Aurora: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Aurora: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Aurora: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Aurora detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.