Best PlacesEast Brooklyn, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Brooklyn, 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.
East Brooklyn ranks 26,077th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in East Brooklyn
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.
East Brooklyn's strengths and weaknesses
Where East Brooklyn ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of towns
- QuietBetter than 81% of towns
- BikingBetter than 81% of towns
Where East Brooklyn ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 11% of towns
- Short commute34.6 minutes each way, better than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East Brooklyn
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Brooklyn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $84,625, 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 East Brooklyn's effective rate of 1.96%, 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 East Brooklyn
East Brooklyn 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 East Brooklyn.
Who works in East Brooklyn, and how
Work in East Brooklyn centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in East Brooklyn
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across East Brooklyn.
What the weather is like in East Brooklyn, month by month
East Brooklyn sees roughly 71 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 East Brooklyn
Chicago Midway International sits about 50 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 East Brooklyn
Schools across East Brooklyn average a D+, better than 11% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Wilmington Grade SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Gardner-south Wilmington Twp H SD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Brooklyn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East Brooklyn 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 East Brooklyn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East Brooklyn
Is East Brooklyn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Brooklyn ranks 26,077th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, a stable housing market, and walkability, 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 East Brooklyn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $176,700. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $84,625 median income, cost of living beats 65% of towns.
Is East Brooklyn safe?
Yes, East Brooklyn is safer than 67% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $195 per resident a year.
Compare East Brooklyn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Brooklyn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East Brooklyn 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.
East Brooklyn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Brooklyn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Brooklyn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Brooklyn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Brooklyn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East Brooklyn 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.