Best PlacesMelrose Park, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Melrose Park, 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.
Melrose Park ranks 1,864th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Melrose 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.
Melrose Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Melrose Park ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of cities
- TransitBetter than 94% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 81% of cities
Where Melrose Park ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 51 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Melrose Park
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Melrose Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $78,280; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Melrose Park's effective rate of 1.95%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Melrose Park
Melrose Park runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Melrose Park.
Who works in Melrose Park, and how
Work in Melrose Park 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 85%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Melrose Park
Melrose Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Melrose Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Melrose Park, month by month
Melrose Park sees roughly 51 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 Melrose Park
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 5 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 Melrose Park
Schools across Melrose Park average a D, better than 6% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Palos West Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Dan H Pietrini Elem SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Scott Elementary SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Palos South Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Hester Jr High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Liberty Intermediate SchoolD · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Proviso Math And Science AcademyB− · 45% proficient
- East Leyden High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- West Leyden High SchoolD− · 12% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Melrose Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Melrose 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 Melrose Park against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Melrose Park suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Melrose Park
Is Melrose Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Melrose Park ranks 1,864th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, walkability, and transit, and lowest on the weather and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Melrose Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $267,088. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $78,280 median income, cost of living beats 24% of cities.
Is Melrose Park safe?
Melrose Park is safer than 10% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Melrose Park?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 19. That works out to about 51 pleasant days a year, more than 0% of cities.
Is Melrose Park good for families?
Schools beat 6% of cities, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $1,105 a month.
Compare Melrose Park with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Melrose Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Melrose 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.
Melrose Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Melrose Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Melrose Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Melrose Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Melrose Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Melrose 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.