Best PlacesPerks, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Perks, 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.
Perks ranks 48,128th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Perks
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.
Perks' strengths and weaknesses
Where Perks ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 69% of towns
- Cheap childcare$704 a month, better than 64% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 59% of towns
Where Perks ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 59 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Perks
A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Perks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,731, 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 Perks' effective rate of 1.11%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Perks
Perks runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Perks.
Who works in Perks, and how
Work in Perks centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Perks
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Perks.
What the weather is like in Perks, month by month
Perks sees roughly 59 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 36° | 29° |
| April | 70° | 59° | 49° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 71° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Perks
The nearest airport, Barkley Regional, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 121 miles away.
The best schools in and around Perks
Schools across Perks average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cypress Elem SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Century Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
- Dongola Elementary SchoolF · 5% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dongola Jr High SchoolF · 5% proficient
Top high schools
- Vienna High SchoolD− · 18% proficient
- Egyptian Sr High SchoolD− · 16% proficient
- Dongola High SchoolF · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Perks school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Perks 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 Perks against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Perks
Is Perks a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Perks ranks 48,128th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, state infrastructure, and fast internet, and lowest on the schools and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Perks expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $92,634. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $56,731 median income, cost of living beats 22% of towns.
Is Perks safe?
Perks is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $319 per resident a year.
Compare Perks with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Perks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Perks 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.
Perks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Perks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Perks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Perks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Perks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Perks 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.