Best PlacesKewanee, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kewanee, 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.
Kewanee ranks 36,099th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kewanee
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.
Kewanee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kewanee ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 91% of towns
Where Kewanee ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 8% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kewanee
A household needs to earn about $26,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kewanee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,024, 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 Kewanee's effective rate of 1.71%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kewanee
Kewanee 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 Kewanee.
Who works in Kewanee, and how
Work in Kewanee centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Kewanee
Kewanee has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kewanee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Kewanee, month by month
Kewanee sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 25° | 19° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Kewanee
The nearest airport, Quad Cities International, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 116 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kewanee
Schools across Kewanee average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cambridge Comm Grade SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Annawan Grade SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Neponset Grade SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central Junior HighD− · 16% proficient
- Central ElemF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Wethersfield Jr/sr High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Cambridge Jr/sr High SchoolD · 23% proficient
- Galva Jr-sr High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kewanee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kewanee 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 Kewanee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kewanee
Is Kewanee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kewanee ranks 36,099th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, walkability, and transit, 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 Kewanee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $86,813. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $56,024 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Kewanee safe?
Kewanee is safer than 27% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $313 per resident a year.
Compare Kewanee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kewanee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kewanee 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.
Kewanee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kewanee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kewanee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kewanee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kewanee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kewanee 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.