Best PlacesNachusa, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Nachusa, 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.
Nachusa ranks 23,493rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Nachusa
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.
Nachusa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Nachusa ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
- Household income$108,961 median, better than 89% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 85% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 82% of towns
Where Nachusa ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Nachusa
A household needs to earn about $84,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Nachusa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $108,961, 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 Nachusa's effective rate of 1.70%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Nachusa
Nachusa runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Nachusa.
Who works in Nachusa, and how
Work in Nachusa centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Nachusa
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Nachusa.
What the weather is like in Nachusa, month by month
Nachusa sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Nachusa
The nearest airport, Chicago/Rockford International, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 76 miles away.
The best schools in and around Nachusa
Schools across Nachusa average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ashton-franklin Center Elem SchD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Reagan Middle SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Dixon High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Ashton-franklin Center HsD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Nachusa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Nachusa 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 Nachusa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Nachusa
Is Nachusa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Nachusa ranks 23,493rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, an educated workforce, and high incomes, 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 Nachusa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $286,242. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $108,961 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Nachusa safe?
Nachusa is safer than 38% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $265 per resident a year.
Compare Nachusa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Nachusa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Nachusa 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.
Nachusa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Nachusa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Nachusa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Nachusa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Nachusa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Nachusa 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.