Best PlacesFancy Prairie, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fancy Prairie, 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.
Fancy Prairie ranks 17,422nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fancy Prairie
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.
Fancy Prairie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fancy Prairie ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Household income$107,718 median, better than 89% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 85% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 80% of towns
Where Fancy Prairie ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter 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 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fancy Prairie
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fancy Prairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $107,718, 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 Fancy Prairie's effective rate of 1.72%, 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 Fancy Prairie
Fancy Prairie runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fancy Prairie.
Who works in Fancy Prairie, and how
Work in Fancy Prairie centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Fancy Prairie
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Fancy Prairie.
What the weather is like in Fancy Prairie, month by month
Fancy Prairie sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 22° |
| April | 66° | 54° | 44° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Fancy Prairie
The nearest airport, Abraham Lincoln Capital, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 95 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fancy Prairie
Schools across Fancy Prairie average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sherman Elem SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Cantrall Elem SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Greenview Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cantrall Intermediate SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Williamsville Jr High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Mount Pulaski High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Williamsville High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Athens Sr High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fancy Prairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fancy Prairie 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 Fancy Prairie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fancy Prairie
Is Fancy Prairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fancy Prairie ranks 17,422nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, a stable housing market, and high incomes, and lowest on tree cover and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fancy Prairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $197,898. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $107,718 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Fancy Prairie safe?
Fancy Prairie is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $273 per resident a year.
Compare Fancy Prairie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fancy Prairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fancy Prairie 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.
Fancy Prairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fancy Prairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fancy Prairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fancy Prairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fancy Prairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fancy Prairie 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.