Best PlacesBelleville, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Belleville, 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.
Belleville ranks 1,807th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a stable housing market.
The best neighborhoods in Belleville
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.
Belleville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Belleville ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 89% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than 78% of cities
- TransitBetter than 69% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 67% of cities
- Short commute23.9 minutes each way, better than 65% of cities
Where Belleville ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Belleville
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Belleville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,291, 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 Belleville's effective rate of 1.99%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Belleville
Belleville's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Belleville.
Who works in Belleville, and how
Work in Belleville centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Belleville
Belleville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of cities and more parkland per resident than 89% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Belleville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Belleville, month by month
Belleville sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 25° |
| April | 69° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Belleville
The nearest airport, Scott AFB/Midamerica St Louis, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 25 miles away.
The best schools in and around Belleville
Schools across Belleville average a D+, better than 8% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Scott Elem SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Smithton Elem SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Mascoutah Elem SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wolf Branch Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Mascoutah Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Freeburg Elem SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Mascoutah High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Waterloo High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Freeburg Community High SchC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Belleville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Belleville 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 Belleville against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Belleville suits
Common questions about living in Belleville
Is Belleville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Belleville ranks 1,807th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on a stable housing market, state infrastructure, and transit, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Belleville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $154,266. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $70,291 median income, cost of living beats 44% of cities.
Is Belleville safe?
Belleville is safer than 8% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $421 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Belleville?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 25. That works out to about 57 pleasant days a year, more than 2% of cities.
Is Belleville good for families?
Schools beat 8% of cities, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $956 a month.
Compare Belleville with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Belleville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Belleville 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.
Belleville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Belleville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Belleville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Belleville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Belleville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Belleville 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.