Best PlacesDecatur, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Decatur metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Tross1118, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Decatur ranks 353rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the schools and state finances. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Decatur metro
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.
The best areas in Decatur
The towns and districts of the Decatur metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Mount Zion & Long Creek
Fewer homes sit empty, more residents vote, and crime runs lower.
Forsyth
Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.
Downtown Decatur
Streets are more walkable, though health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Decatur run from about the 1st to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Decatur's strengths and weaknesses
Decatur ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Short commutes and cell coverage follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the schools, state finances, and taxes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Decatur ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Short commute19.4 minutes each way, better than 90% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 77% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 76% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 70% of metro areas
Where Decatur ranks low
- School gradeD−, better than only 1% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Decatur
A household needs to earn about $38,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Decatur home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,645, 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 Decatur's effective rate of 1.91%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Decatur
Decatur's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Decatur.
Who works in Decatur, and how
Work in Decatur centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Decatur
Decatur has more parkland per resident than 91% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Decatur and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Decatur growing, and who is moving in?
Decatur has lost about 7% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Chicago, IL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Decatur go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Decatur, month by month
Decatur sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 67° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Decatur
The nearest airport, Decatur, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 108 miles away.
The best schools in and around Decatur
Schools across Decatur average a D−, better than 1% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mt Zion Elem SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Maroa-forsyth Grade SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Cerro Gordo Elem SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mt Zion Jr High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Maroa-forsyth Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Meridian Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Mt Zion High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Cerro Gordo Jr And Sr High SchC+ · 35% proficient
- Maroa-forsyth Senior High SchC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Decatur school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Decatur 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 Decatur against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Decatur suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Decatur
Is Decatur a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Decatur ranks 353rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, short commutes, and cell coverage, and lowest on the schools and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Decatur expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $127,201. The overall cost of living runs about 25% below the national average. Set against a $70,645 median income, cost of living beats 70% of metro areas.
Is Decatur safe?
Decatur is safer than 15% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $362 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Decatur?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 22. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 26% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Decatur?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Mount Zion & Long Creek, Forsyth, and Downtown Decatur. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Decatur good for families?
Schools beat 0% of metro areas, crime safety beats 15%, and childcare runs $1,009 a month.
Is Decatur good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 34% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Decatur with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Decatur. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Decatur 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.
Decatur detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Decatur: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Decatur: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Decatur: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Decatur: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Decatur 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.