Best PlacesForest Park, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Forest Park, 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 Park ranks 13,775th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Forest 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.
Forest Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Forest Park ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
Where Forest Park ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Forest Park
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Forest Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,384, 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 Forest Park's effective rate of 2.12%, 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 10 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 Park
Forest Park 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 Park.
Who works in Forest Park, and how
Work in Forest Park centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 17%
Life in Forest Park
Forest Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Forest Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Forest Park, month by month
Forest Park sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 43° |
| July | 86° | 77° | 70° |
| October | 66° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Forest Park
Chicago Midway International sits about 7 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 Forest Park
Schools across Forest Park average a C−, better than 22% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Field Stevenson Elem SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Jefferson Elem SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lincoln Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Forest Park Middle SchoolF · 9% proficient
Top high schools
- Proviso Math And Science AcademyB− · 45% proficient
- J Sterling Morton West High SchD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Forest Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Forest 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 Forest Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Forest Park
Is Forest Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Forest Park ranks 13,775th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Forest Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $287,678. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $76,384 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Forest Park safe?
Forest Park is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $468 per resident a year.
Compare Forest Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Forest Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Forest 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.
Forest Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Forest Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Forest Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Forest Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Forest Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Forest 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.