Best PlacesForest City, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Forest City, 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.
Forest City ranks 40,148th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Property taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a stable housing market.
The best neighborhoods in Forest City
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.
Forest City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Forest City ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 67% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 62% of towns
Where Forest City ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 55 pleasant days a year, better than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Forest City
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Forest City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,483, 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 Forest City's effective rate of 2.00%, 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 Forest City
Forest City runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Forest City.
Who works in Forest City, and how
Work in Forest City centers on manufacturing and finance & insurance. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Forest City
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Forest City.
What the weather is like in Forest City, month by month
Forest City sees roughly 55 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 27° | 18° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 40° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 70° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Forest City
The nearest airport, General Downing - Peoria International, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 116 miles away.
The best schools in and around Forest City
Schools across Forest City average a D, better than 4% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Midwest Central Primary SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Illini Central Grade SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Midwest Central Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Illini Central Middle SchoolF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Midwest Central High SchoolF · 8% proficient
- Illini Central High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Forest City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Forest City 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 Forest City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Forest City
Is Forest City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Forest City ranks 40,148th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, civic engagement, and state infrastructure, and lowest on property taxes and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Forest City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $132,074. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $71,483 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Forest City safe?
Forest City is safer than 45% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $246 per resident a year.
Compare Forest City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Forest City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Forest City 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.
Forest City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Forest City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Forest City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Forest City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Forest City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Forest City 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.