Best PlacesElwood, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Elwood, 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.
Elwood ranks 8,599th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Elwood
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.
Elwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Elwood ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
Where Elwood ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 54 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,352 a month, better than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Elwood
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,495, 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 Elwood's effective rate of 1.84%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Elwood
Elwood'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 Elwood.
Who works in Elwood, and how
Work in Elwood centers on transportation & warehousing and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Elwood
Elwood has more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Elwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Elwood, month by month
Elwood sees roughly 54 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Elwood
Chicago Midway International sits about 31 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 Elwood
Schools across Elwood average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Union Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Elwood C C SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Laraway SchoolF · 4% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilmington Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Manhattan Jr High SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Lincoln-way Central High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Wilmington High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Joliet Central High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elwood 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 Elwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Elwood
Is Elwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elwood ranks 8,599th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and big-city access, 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 Elwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $269,633. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $103,495 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Elwood safe?
Yes, Elwood is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $137 per resident a year.
Compare Elwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elwood 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.
Elwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elwood 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.