Best PlacesElgin, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Elgin, 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.
Elgin ranks 239th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and state finances. It does better on few empty homes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Elgin
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 Elgin
The parts of Elgin, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Southwestern Elgin
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Southeastern Elgin
It is noisier and health care is harder to reach.
Maple Manor
Streets are more walkable and transit reaches more jobs.
Elgin Historic District
More households have young kids, though fewer residents vote.
Elgin shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 5%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Elgin's strengths and weaknesses
Elgin lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Few empty homes, heat safety, and low disaster risk carry most of that.
The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. State finances and the schools also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Elgin to another than it does between Elgin and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Elgin ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 84% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 77% of cities
Where Elgin ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 3% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 4% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 4% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 16% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Elgin
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elgin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $99,707, 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 Elgin's effective rate of 2.13%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Elgin
Elgin's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Elgin.
Who works in Elgin, and how
Work in Elgin centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Elgin
Elgin has more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Elgin and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Elgin, month by month
Elgin sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 25° | 18° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Elgin
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 21 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.8 million passengers in 2025, with 305 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Elgin
Schools across Elgin average a D, better than 4% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Ferson Creek SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Lily Lake Grade SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Corron Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thompson Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Wredling Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Prairie Knolls Middle SchB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- St Charles North High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- St Charles East High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Central High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elgin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elgin 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 Elgin against the other 444 cities.
Who Elgin suits
Families
Schools land around the 4th percentile and crime safety beats 67%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 74% of cities and 14% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Elgin
Is Elgin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elgin ranks 239th of 445 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, heat safety, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property 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 Elgin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $289,832. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $99,707 median income, cost of living beats 74% of cities.
Is Elgin safe?
Yes, Elgin is safer than 67% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $256 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Elgin?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 32 with lows near 18. That works out to about 100 pleasant days a year, more than 47% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Elgin?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Southwestern Elgin, Southeastern Elgin, and Maple Manor. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Elgin good for families?
Schools beat 4% of cities, crime safety beats 67%, and childcare runs $1,323 a month.
Is Elgin good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 74% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 24% of cities. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Elgin with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elgin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elgin 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.
Elgin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elgin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elgin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elgin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elgin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elgin 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.