Best PlacesCarbon Hill, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carbon Hill, 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.
Carbon Hill ranks 15,349th 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 Carbon Hill
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.
Carbon Hill's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carbon Hill ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 92% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
Where Carbon Hill ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,059 a month, better than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carbon Hill
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carbon Hill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $84,624; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Carbon Hill's effective rate of 1.25%, 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 Carbon Hill
Carbon Hill runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Carbon Hill.
Who works in Carbon Hill, and how
Work in Carbon Hill centers on health care & social and other services. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Carbon Hill
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carbon Hill.
What the weather is like in Carbon Hill, month by month
Carbon Hill sees roughly 70 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 Carbon Hill
Chicago Midway International sits about 44 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 Carbon Hill
Schools across Carbon Hill average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coal City Intermediate SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Coal City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carbon Hill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carbon Hill 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 Carbon Hill against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carbon Hill
Is Carbon Hill a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carbon Hill ranks 15,349th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, big-city access, and few empty homes, 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 Carbon Hill expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $328,567. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $84,624 median income, cost of living beats 65% of towns.
Is Carbon Hill safe?
Yes, Carbon Hill is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $174 per resident a year.
Compare Carbon Hill with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carbon Hill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carbon Hill 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.
Carbon Hill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carbon Hill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carbon Hill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carbon Hill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carbon Hill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carbon Hill 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.