Best PlacesCottage Hills, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cottage Hills, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cottage Hills ranks 43,027th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cottage Hills
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.
Cottage Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Cottage Hills ranks high
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 87% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 74% of towns
Where Cottage Hills ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cottage Hills
A household needs to earn about $22,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cottage Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,216, 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 Cottage Hills' effective rate of 1.69%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cottage Hills
Cottage Hills runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cottage Hills.
Who works in Cottage Hills, and how
Work in Cottage Hills centers on retail trade and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cottage Hills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cottage Hills.
What the weather is like in Cottage Hills, month by month
Cottage Hills sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 31° | 24° |
| April | 66° | 55° | 45° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Cottage Hills
St Louis Lambert International sits about 19 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.5 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cottage Hills
Schools across Cottage Hills average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Parkside Primary SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
- East Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilbur Trimpe Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Alton Middle SchoolF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Alton High SchoolD · 23% proficient
- Civic Memorial High SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cottage Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cottage Hills 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 Cottage Hills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cottage Hills
Is Cottage Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cottage Hills ranks 43,027th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and fast internet, 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 Cottage Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $73,669. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $55,216 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Cottage Hills safe?
Cottage Hills is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $292 per resident a year.
Compare Cottage Hills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cottage Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cottage Hills 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.
Cottage Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cottage Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cottage Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cottage Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cottage Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cottage Hills 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.