Best PlacesElburn, IL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Elburn, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Elburn ranks 1,962nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.

#1,962
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Elburn

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Elburn area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Elburn's strengths and weaknesses

#1962Best US town overall
Top 3%Population health
Top 3%What local pay buys
Top 5%High incomes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Elburn with other towns.

Where Elburn ranks high

  • Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
  • Household income$146,263 median, better than 97% of towns
  • Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 96% of towns

Where Elburn 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
  • Cheap childcare$1,380 a month, better than only 6% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 13% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Elburn

A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elburn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $146,263, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$125,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,919
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $409,993 home
Median rent
$1,711
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,090
Property tax$692
Homeowners insurance$137

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 Elburn's effective rate of 2.02%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Elburn

Elburn's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1825%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6421%
65 and older16%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Elburn.


Who works in Elburn, and how

Work in Elburn centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
1.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Education12%
Manufacturing12%
Health care & social11%
Construction10%
Retail trade10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 79%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in Elburn

Elburn has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Elburn and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
41
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 42.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of towns

What the weather is like in Elburn, month by month

Elburn sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January32°24°17°
April61°49°38°
July85°74°63°
October65°53°43°

Flying in and out of Elburn

Chicago O'Hare International sits about 29 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.8 million passengers in 2025, with 305 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
ORD
Chicago O'Hare International, about 29 miles
Airport size
Large hub
3rd-busiest in the US, 305 nonstop destinations
Average drive
41 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Elburn

Schools across Elburn average a C, better than 37% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elburn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Elburn 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 Elburn against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Elburn

Is Elburn a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elburn ranks 1,962nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, what local pay buys, and high incomes, 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 Elburn expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $409,993. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $146,263 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.

Is Elburn safe?

Yes, Elburn is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $166 per resident a year.


Compare Elburn with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elburn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elburn 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.

Elburn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Elburn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Elburn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Elburn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Elburn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Elburn detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.