Best PlacesLoves Park, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Loves Park, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Loves Park ranks 20,971st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Loves 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.
Loves Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Loves Park ranks high
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of towns
Where Loves Park ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Loves Park
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Loves Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,096, 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 Loves Park's effective rate of 1.97%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Loves Park
Loves Park's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Loves Park.
Who works in Loves Park, and how
Work in Loves Park centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Loves Park
Loves Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns and more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Loves Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Loves Park, month by month
Loves Park sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 24° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 63° |
| October | 67° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Loves Park
The nearest airport, Chicago/Rockford International, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 62 miles away.
The best schools in and around Loves Park
Schools across Loves Park average a D, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Seth Whitman Elem SchC− · 28% proficient
- Machesney Elem SchoolD · 19% proficient
- Spring Creek Elem SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thurgood Marshall SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Stephen Mack Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Harlem Middle SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Hononegah Chd High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Belvidere North High SchC− · 30% proficient
- Harlem High SchoolD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Loves Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Loves 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 Loves Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Loves Park suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Loves Park
Is Loves Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Loves Park ranks 20,971st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and cell coverage, and lowest on property taxes and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Loves Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $170,462. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $74,096 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Loves Park safe?
Loves Park is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Loves Park?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 16. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 31% of towns.
Is Loves Park good for families?
Schools beat 10% of towns, crime safety beats 48%, and childcare runs $1,096 a month.
Compare Loves Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Loves Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Loves 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.
Loves Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Loves Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Loves Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Loves Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Loves Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Loves 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.