Best PlacesPark Forest, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Park Forest, 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.
Park Forest ranks 39,703rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Park Forest
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.
Park Forest's strengths and weaknesses
Where Park Forest ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of towns
Where Park Forest ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Park Forest
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Park Forest home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,371, 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 Park Forest's effective rate of 2.38%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Park Forest
Park Forest runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Park Forest.
Who works in Park Forest, and how
Work in Park Forest centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Park Forest
Park Forest has more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Park Forest and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Park Forest, month by month
Park Forest sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Park Forest
Chicago Midway International sits about 21 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Park Forest
Schools across Park Forest average a D−, better than 2% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Illinois SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Arcadia Elem SchoolD− · 15% proficient
- Monee Elementary SchoolF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- O W Huth Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
- Crete-monee Middle SchoolD− · 13% proficient
- Columbia Central SchoolF · 12% proficient
Top high schools
- Crete-monee High SchoolF · 11% proficient
- Bloom Trail High SchoolF · 10% proficient
- Rich Township High SchoolF · 9% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Park Forest school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Park Forest 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 Park Forest against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Park Forest suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Park Forest
Is Park Forest a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Park Forest ranks 39,703rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, big-city access, and transit, 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 Park Forest expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $122,737. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $66,371 median income, cost of living beats 38% of towns.
Is Park Forest safe?
Park Forest is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $468 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Park Forest?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 20. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 34% of towns.
Is Park Forest good for families?
Schools beat 2% of towns, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $1,133 a month.
Compare Park Forest with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Park Forest. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Park Forest 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.
Park Forest detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Park Forest: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Park Forest: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Park Forest: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Park Forest: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Park Forest 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.