Best PlacesCary, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cary, 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.
Cary ranks 3,174th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cary
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.
Cary's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cary ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$137,147 median, better than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
Where Cary 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
- Cheap childcare$1,366 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cary
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cary home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $137,147, 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 Cary's effective rate of 2.48%, 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 Cary
Cary'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 Cary.
Who works in Cary, and how
Work in Cary centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Cary
Cary has more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cary and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cary, month by month
Cary sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Cary
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 24 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 Cary
Schools across Cary average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Eastview Elem SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Husmann Elem SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Algonquin Road Elem SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Barrington Middle Sch StationC+ · 38% proficient
- Hannah Beardsley Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Prairie Grove Junior High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Barrington High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Prairie Ridge High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Cary-grove Community High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cary school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cary 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 Cary against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Cary suits
Families
Schools land around the 37th percentile and crime safety beats 80%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 18% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 62% of towns and health care access beats 77%.
Common questions about living in Cary
Is Cary a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cary ranks 3,174th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and big-city access, 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 Cary expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $335,188. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $137,147 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Cary safe?
Yes, Cary is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $172 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cary?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 21. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 62% of towns.
Is Cary good for families?
Schools beat 37% of towns, crime safety beats 80%, and childcare runs $1,366 a month.
Compare Cary with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cary. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cary 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.
Cary detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cary: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cary: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cary: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cary: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cary 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.