Best PlacesBrookfield, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brookfield, 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.
Brookfield ranks 7,737th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brookfield
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.
Brookfield's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brookfield ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
Where Brookfield ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brookfield
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brookfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $113,623, 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 Brookfield's effective rate of 2.39%, 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 Brookfield
Brookfield's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brookfield.
Who works in Brookfield, and how
Work in Brookfield centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 12%
Life in Brookfield
Brookfield has more parkland per resident than 82% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Brookfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brookfield, month by month
Brookfield sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 77° | 70° |
| October | 66° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Brookfield
Chicago Midway International sits about 6 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 Brookfield
Schools across Brookfield average a C+, better than 46% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- A F Ames Elem SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Seventh Ave Elem SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Hollywood Elem SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- L J Hauser Jr High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Wm F Gurrie Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- S E Gross Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Lyons Twp High SchB+ · 51% proficient
- Riverside Brookfield Twp HsB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brookfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brookfield 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 Brookfield against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brookfield
Is Brookfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brookfield ranks 7,737th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, walkability, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brookfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $338,613. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $113,623 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Brookfield safe?
Brookfield is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $344 per resident a year.
Compare Brookfield with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brookfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brookfield 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.
Brookfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brookfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brookfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brookfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brookfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brookfield 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.