Best PlacesFord Heights, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ford Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ford Heights ranks 50,126th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Ford Heights
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.
Ford Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Ford Heights ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 80% of towns
Where Ford Heights ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ford Heights
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ford Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,785, 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 Ford Heights' effective rate of 1.99%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ford Heights
Ford Heights runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ford Heights.
Who works in Ford Heights, and how
Work in Ford Heights centers on health care & social and admin & support services. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Ford Heights
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ford Heights.
What the weather is like in Ford Heights, month by month
Ford Heights sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Ford Heights
Chicago Midway International sits about 21 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 Ford Heights
Schools across Ford Heights average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sandridge Elem SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Hickory Bend Elem SchoolF · 8% proficient
- Medgar Evers Primary Acadmc CntrF · 3% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brookwood Jr High SchoolF · 13% proficient
- Columbia Central SchoolF · 12% proficient
- Rickover Jr High SchoolF · 4% proficient
Top high schools
- Bloom Trail High SchoolF · 10% proficient
- Bloom High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ford Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ford Heights 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 Ford Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ford Heights
Is Ford Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ford Heights ranks 50,126th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on the schools and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ford Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $115,101. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $51,785 median income, cost of living beats 8% of towns.
Is Ford Heights safe?
Ford Heights is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $891 per resident a year.
Compare Ford Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ford Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ford Heights 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.
Ford Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ford Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ford Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ford Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ford Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ford Heights 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.