Best PlacesLake Bluff, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lake Bluff, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Lake Bluff ranks 1,714th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lake Bluff
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.
Lake Bluff's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lake Bluff ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$163,504 median, better than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
Where Lake Bluff ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,267 a month, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lake Bluff
A household needs to earn about $191,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lake Bluff home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $163,504, 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 Lake Bluff's effective rate of 1.86%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lake Bluff
Lake Bluff runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lake Bluff.
Who works in Lake Bluff, and how
Work in Lake Bluff centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 61%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Lake Bluff
Lake Bluff has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lake Bluff and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lake Bluff, month by month
Lake Bluff sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 25° | 19° |
| April | 56° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Lake Bluff
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.8 million passengers in 2025, with 305 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Lake Bluff
Schools across Lake Bluff average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Oak Grove Elem SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Rondout Elem SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Lake Bluff Elem SchB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lake Bluff Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Neal Math Science AcademyF · 3% proficient
Top high schools
- Lake Forest High SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Libertyville High SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Warren Township High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lake Bluff school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lake Bluff 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 Lake Bluff against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lake Bluff
Is Lake Bluff a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lake Bluff ranks 1,714th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, population health, and high incomes, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lake Bluff expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $639,348. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $163,504 median income, cost of living beats 96% of towns.
Is Lake Bluff safe?
Yes, Lake Bluff is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $206 per resident a year.
Compare Lake Bluff with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lake Bluff. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lake Bluff 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.
Lake Bluff detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lake Bluff: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lake Bluff: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lake Bluff: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lake Bluff: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lake Bluff 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.