Best PlacesBerkeley, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Berkeley, 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.
Berkeley ranks 29,389th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Berkeley
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.
Berkeley's strengths and weaknesses
Where Berkeley ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
Where Berkeley ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 51 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Berkeley
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Berkeley home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,664, 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 Berkeley's effective rate of 2.57%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Berkeley
Berkeley runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Berkeley.
Who works in Berkeley, and how
Work in Berkeley centers on transportation & warehousing and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Berkeley
Berkeley has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Berkeley and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Berkeley, month by month
Berkeley sees roughly 51 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Berkeley
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 6 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 Berkeley
Schools across Berkeley average a D+, better than 14% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jefferson Elem SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Sunnyside Intermediate SchoolF · 8% proficient
- Hillside Elem SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sandburg Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Northlake Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
- Macarthur Middle SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Proviso Math And Science AcademyB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Berkeley school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Berkeley 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 Berkeley against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Berkeley
Is Berkeley a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Berkeley ranks 29,389th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Berkeley expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $246,596. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $85,664 median income, cost of living beats 50% of towns.
Is Berkeley safe?
Berkeley is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $363 per resident a year.
Compare Berkeley with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Berkeley. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Berkeley 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.
Berkeley detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Berkeley: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Berkeley: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Berkeley: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Berkeley: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Berkeley 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.