Best PlacesBarrington Hills, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Barrington Hills, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Barrington Hills ranks 2,149th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Barrington Hills
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.
Barrington Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Barrington Hills ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$159,117 median, better than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
Where Barrington Hills ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,255 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Barrington Hills
A household needs to earn about $218,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Barrington Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $159,117, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Barrington Hills' effective rate of 1.85%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Barrington Hills
Barrington Hills's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Barrington Hills.
Who works in Barrington Hills, and how
Work in Barrington Hills centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Barrington Hills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Barrington Hills.
What the weather is like in Barrington Hills, month by month
Barrington Hills sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Barrington Hills
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 20 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 Barrington Hills
Schools across Barrington Hills average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Countryside Elem SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Eastview Elem SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Algonquin Road Elem SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Barrington Middle Sch StationC+ · 38% proficient
- Barrington Mdle Sch- Prairie CmpsC · 35% proficient
- Fox River Grove Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Barrington High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Cary-grove Community High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Barrington Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Barrington Hills 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 Barrington Hills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Barrington Hills
Is Barrington Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Barrington Hills ranks 2,149th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and population health, and lowest on 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 Barrington Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $727,721. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $159,117 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Barrington Hills safe?
Barrington Hills is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $229 per resident a year.
Compare Barrington Hills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Barrington Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Barrington Hills 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.
Barrington Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Barrington Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Barrington Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Barrington Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Barrington Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Barrington Hills 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.