Best PlacesKankakee, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Kankakee metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Ryan Spencer zombience, CC0, via commons
Kankakee ranks 265th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the schools and state finances. It does better on big-city access, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Kankakee metro
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.
The best areas in Kankakee
The towns and districts of the Kankakee metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Bourbonnais
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and it is quieter.
Manteno
Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer households have young kids.
Momence & Grant Park
Crime runs lower, though advertised internet is slower.
St. Anne
More residents vote, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Kankakee
Health care is harder to reach and fewer adults hold degrees.
Kankakee shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Kankakee's strengths and weaknesses
Kankakee lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Big-city access, low disaster risk, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The one real hole is the schools, near the bottom of the country. State finances and taxes also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Kankakee ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of metro areas
Where Kankakee ranks low
- School gradeD, better than only 2% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Kankakee
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kankakee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,268, 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 Kankakee's effective rate of 2.06%, 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 Kankakee
Kankakee's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kankakee.
Who works in Kankakee, and how
Work in Kankakee centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Kankakee
Kankakee has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kankakee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kankakee growing, and who is moving in?
Kankakee has lost about 5% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Chicago, IL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kankakee go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kankakee, month by month
Kankakee sees roughly 71 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 October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Kankakee
Chicago Midway International sits about 47 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 Kankakee
Schools across Kankakee average a D, better than 2% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Herscher Intermediate SchB− · 43% proficient
- St George Elem SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Alan B Shepard Elem SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Limestone Middle SchC− · 29% proficient
- Liberty Intermediate SchoolD · 24% proficient
- John L Nash Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Herscher High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Bradley-bourbonnais C High SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Momence High SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kankakee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kankakee 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 Kankakee against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Kankakee suits
Families
Schools land around the 2nd percentile and crime safety beats 70%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 9% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Kankakee
Is Kankakee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kankakee ranks 265th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on big-city access, low disaster risk, and cell coverage, and lowest on the schools and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kankakee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $194,644. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $78,268 median income, cost of living beats 71% of metro areas.
Is Kankakee safe?
Yes, Kankakee is safer than 70% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $233 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kankakee?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 20. That works out to about 71 pleasant days a year, more than 25% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Kankakee?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Bourbonnais, Manteno, and Momence & Grant Park. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Kankakee good for families?
Schools beat 2% of metro areas, crime safety beats 70%, and childcare runs $857 a month.
Is Kankakee good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 81% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kankakee with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kankakee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kankakee 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.
Kankakee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kankakee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kankakee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kankakee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kankakee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kankakee 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.