Best PlacesMedinah, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Medinah, 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.
Medinah ranks 9,070th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Medinah
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.
Medinah's strengths and weaknesses
Where Medinah ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
Where Medinah ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 54 pleasant days a year, better than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,560 a month, better than only 2% 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
What it costs to buy a home in Medinah
A household needs to earn about $140,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Medinah home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $111,885, 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 Medinah's effective rate of 1.91%, 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 Medinah
Medinah 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 Medinah.
Who works in Medinah, and how
Work in Medinah centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Medinah
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Medinah.
What the weather is like in Medinah, month by month
Medinah sees roughly 54 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Medinah
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 8 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 Medinah
Schools across Medinah average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Erickson Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Dujardin Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Westfield Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- F E Peacock Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Medinah Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Lake Park High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Medinah school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Medinah 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 Medinah against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Medinah
Is Medinah a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Medinah ranks 9,070th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on the weather and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Medinah expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $466,218. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $111,885 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Medinah safe?
Medinah is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $239 per resident a year.
Compare Medinah with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Medinah. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Medinah 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.
Medinah detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Medinah: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Medinah: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Medinah: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Medinah: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Medinah 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.