Best PlacesPort Barrington, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Port Barrington, 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.
Port Barrington ranks 7,761st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Port Barrington
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.
Port Barrington's strengths and weaknesses
Where Port Barrington ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$131,363 median, better than 95% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Port Barrington ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,324 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Port Barrington
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Port Barrington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $131,363, 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 Port Barrington's effective rate of 2.29%, 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 Port Barrington
Port Barrington runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Port Barrington.
Who works in Port Barrington, and how
Work in Port Barrington centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Port Barrington
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Port Barrington.
What the weather is like in Port Barrington, month by month
Port Barrington sees roughly 88 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 Port Barrington
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 24 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 Port Barrington
Schools across Port Barrington average a C−, better than 21% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deer Path Elem SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Cotton Creek SchoolD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Barrington Middle Sch StationC+ · 38% proficient
- Cary Jr High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Matthews Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Barrington High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Cary-grove Community High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Wauconda High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Port Barrington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Port Barrington 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 Port Barrington against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Port Barrington
Is Port Barrington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Port Barrington ranks 7,761st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, high incomes, and what local pay buys, and lowest on property taxes and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Port Barrington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $357,379. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $131,363 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Port Barrington safe?
Yes, Port Barrington is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $188 per resident a year.
Compare Port Barrington with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Port Barrington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Port Barrington 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.
Port Barrington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Port Barrington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Port Barrington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Port Barrington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Port Barrington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Port Barrington 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.