Best PlacesGays, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gays, 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.
Gays ranks 34,458th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on a stable housing market.
The best neighborhoods in Gays
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.
Gays' strengths and weaknesses
Where Gays ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 74% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 69% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 67% of towns
Where Gays ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gays
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gays home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,946, 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 Gays' effective rate of 1.54%, 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 Gays
Gays 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 Gays.
Who works in Gays, and how
Work in Gays centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Gays
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Gays.
What the weather is like in Gays, month by month
Gays sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 68° | 57° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Gays
The nearest airport, Decatur, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 112 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gays
Schools across Gays average a D, better than 7% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sullivan Elem SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Windsor Elem SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Riddle Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mattoon Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
- Sullivan Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Sullivan High SchoolD · 23% proficient
- Mattoon High SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Windsor Jr & Sr High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gays school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gays 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 Gays against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gays
Is Gays a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gays ranks 34,458th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, state infrastructure, and few empty homes, and lowest on taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gays expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $158,568. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $70,946 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Gays safe?
Gays is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $251 per resident a year.
Compare Gays with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gays. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gays 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.
Gays detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gays: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gays: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gays: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gays: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gays 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.