Best PlacesMount Prospect, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mount Prospect, 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.
Mount Prospect ranks 766th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mount Prospect
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 Prospect's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mount Prospect ranks high
- BikingBetter than 93% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of cities
Where Mount Prospect ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of cities
- School gradeC−, better than only 14% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 32% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mount Prospect
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mount Prospect home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $111,060; 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 Mount Prospect's effective rate of 2.00%, 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 Mount Prospect
Mount Prospect runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mount Prospect.
Who works in Mount Prospect, and how
Work in Mount Prospect centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Mount Prospect
Mount Prospect has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of cities and more parkland per resident than 90% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Mount Prospect and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mount Prospect, month by month
Mount Prospect sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Mount Prospect
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 6 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 Mount Prospect
Schools across Mount Prospect average a C−, better than 14% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Iroquois Community SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Windsor Elementary SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Indian Grove Elem SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- South Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- River Trails Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Macarthur Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Prospect High SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mount Prospect school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mount Prospect 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 Prospect against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mount Prospect suits
Common questions about living in Mount Prospect
Is Mount Prospect a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mount Prospect ranks 766th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, a stable housing market, and low disaster risk, and lowest on taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mount Prospect expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $367,214. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $111,060 median income, cost of living beats 68% of cities.
Is Mount Prospect safe?
Mount Prospect is safer than 38% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $262 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mount Prospect?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 21. That works out to about 78 pleasant days a year, more than 41% of cities.
Is Mount Prospect good for families?
Schools beat 14% of cities, crime safety beats 38%, and childcare runs $1,105 a month.
Compare Mount Prospect with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mount Prospect. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mount Prospect 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 Prospect detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mount Prospect: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mount Prospect: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mount Prospect: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mount Prospect: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mount Prospect 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.