Best PlacesCoal City, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Coal City, 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.
Coal City ranks 18,591st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Coal City
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.
Coal City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Coal City ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 88% of towns
Where Coal City ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,059 a month, better than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Coal City
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Coal City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,391, 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 Coal City's effective rate of 1.55%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Coal City
Coal City 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 Coal City.
Who works in Coal City, and how
Work in Coal City centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Coal City
Coal City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Coal City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Coal City, month by month
Coal City 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 Coal City
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 Coal City
Schools across Coal City average a B−, better than 54% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Coal City Intermediate SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Reed-custer Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Coal City Elem SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Coal City Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Wilmington Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Reed-custer Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Morris Community High SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Coal City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Seneca High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Coal City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Coal City 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 Coal City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Coal City
Is Coal City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Coal City ranks 18,591st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, cell coverage, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Coal City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,877. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $83,391 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Coal City safe?
Yes, Coal City is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $190 per resident a year.
Compare Coal City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Coal City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Coal City 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.
Coal City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Coal City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Coal City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Coal City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Coal City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Coal City 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.