Best PlacesMount Carroll, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mount Carroll, 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.
Mount Carroll ranks 44,613th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mount Carroll
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.
Mount Carroll's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mount Carroll ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 91% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- BikingBetter than 76% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 73% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 72% of towns
Where Mount Carroll ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mount Carroll
A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mount Carroll home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $57,692, 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 Mount Carroll's effective rate of 2.10%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mount Carroll
Mount Carroll 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 Mount Carroll.
Who works in Mount Carroll, and how
Work in Mount Carroll centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Mount Carroll
Mount Carroll has more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Mount Carroll and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mount Carroll, month by month
Mount Carroll sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 17° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Mount Carroll
The nearest airport, Dubuque Regional, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 107 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mount Carroll
Schools across Mount Carroll average a D−, better than 3% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Stockton Elem SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Eastland Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Chadwick-milledgeville Elem SchC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pearl City Jr High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- West Carroll Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Eastland Jr/sr High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Chadwick-milledgeville Jr HsC · 33% proficient
- Pearl City High SchoolD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mount Carroll school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mount Carroll 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 Mount Carroll against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mount Carroll
Is Mount Carroll a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mount Carroll ranks 44,613th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, state infrastructure, and biking, and lowest on property taxes and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mount Carroll expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $108,344. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $57,692 median income, cost of living beats 32% of towns.
Is Mount Carroll safe?
Mount Carroll is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $354 per resident a year.
Compare Mount Carroll with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mount Carroll. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mount Carroll 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.
Mount Carroll detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mount Carroll: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mount Carroll: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mount Carroll: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mount Carroll: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mount Carroll 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.