Best PlacesElmwood Park, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Elmwood Park, 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.
Elmwood Park ranks 1,320th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Elmwood Park
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 Elmwood Park
The parts of Elmwood Park, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Austin
Ellsworth
Dunning
Montclare & Belmont Cragin
Scores across Elmwood Park run from about the 18th to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Elmwood Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Elmwood Park ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- TransitBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of cities
- BikingBetter than 96% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of cities
Where Elmwood Park ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 51 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of cities
- Short commute33.9 minutes each way, better than only 8% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Elmwood Park
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elmwood Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,329, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Elmwood Park's effective rate of 1.54%, 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.
Who lives in Elmwood Park
Elmwood Park's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Elmwood Park.
Who works in Elmwood Park, and how
Work in Elmwood Park 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 73%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Elmwood Park
Elmwood Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Elmwood Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Elmwood Park, month by month
Elmwood Park sees roughly 51 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Elmwood Park
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 6 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 Elmwood Park
Schools across Elmwood Park average a C−, better than 16% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Stem Magnet Academy ElemB+ · 53% proficient
- Elmwood Elem SchoolD · 18% proficient
- John Mills Elem SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Elm Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Elmwood Park High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elmwood Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elmwood Park 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 Elmwood Park against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Elmwood Park suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Elmwood Park
Is Elmwood Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elmwood Park ranks 1,320th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and walkability, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Elmwood Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $389,696. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $88,329 median income, cost of living beats 44% of cities.
Is Elmwood Park safe?
Elmwood Park is safer than 11% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Elmwood Park?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 19. That works out to about 51 pleasant days a year, more than 0% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Elmwood Park?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Austin, Ellsworth, and Dunning. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Elmwood Park with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elmwood Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elmwood Park 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.
Elmwood Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elmwood Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elmwood Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elmwood Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elmwood Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elmwood Park 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.