Best PlacesBraidwood, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Braidwood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Braidwood ranks 17,388th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Braidwood
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.
Braidwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Braidwood ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 85% of towns
Where Braidwood ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,352 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Braidwood
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Braidwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,587, 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 Braidwood's effective rate of 1.56%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Braidwood
Braidwood runs older than the country, 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 Braidwood.
Who works in Braidwood, and how
Work in Braidwood centers on transportation & warehousing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Braidwood
Braidwood has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Braidwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Braidwood, month by month
Braidwood sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 19° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Braidwood
Chicago Midway International sits about 43 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Braidwood
Schools across Braidwood average a C−, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coal City Intermediate SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Reed-custer Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilmington Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Reed-custer Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Coal City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Wilmington High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Reed-custer High SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Braidwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Braidwood 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 Braidwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Braidwood
Is Braidwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Braidwood ranks 17,388th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, fast internet, and big-city access, 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 Braidwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $199,919. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $87,587 median income, cost of living beats 69% of towns.
Is Braidwood safe?
Yes, Braidwood is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $160 per resident a year.
Compare Braidwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Braidwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Braidwood 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.
Braidwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Braidwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Braidwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Braidwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Braidwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Braidwood 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.