Best PlacesRound Lake Heights, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Round Lake Heights, 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.
Round Lake Heights ranks 10,968th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Round Lake Heights
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.
Round Lake Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Round Lake Heights ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
Where Round Lake Heights 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 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,267 a month, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Round Lake Heights
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Round Lake Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $98,463, 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 Round Lake Heights' effective rate of 1.89%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Round Lake Heights
Round Lake Heights runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Round Lake Heights.
Who works in Round Lake Heights, and how
Work in Round Lake Heights centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Round Lake Heights
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Round Lake Heights.
What the weather is like in Round Lake Heights, month by month
Round Lake Heights sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 25° | 19° |
| April | 56° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 63° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Round Lake Heights
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 30 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 Round Lake Heights
Schools across Round Lake Heights average a D, better than 6% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Olive C Martin SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Indian Hill Elem SchoolD− · 13% proficient
- Raymond Ellis Elem SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top middle schools
- Peter J Palombi SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Round Lake Middle SchoolF · 8% proficient
Top high schools
- Grant Community High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Round Lake Senior High SchoolF · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Round Lake Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Round Lake Heights 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 Round Lake Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Round Lake Heights
Is Round Lake Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Round Lake Heights ranks 10,968th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and few empty homes, 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 Round Lake Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $267,642. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $98,463 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Round Lake Heights safe?
Round Lake Heights is safer than 50% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $236 per resident a year.
Compare Round Lake Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Round Lake Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Round Lake Heights 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.
Round Lake Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Round Lake Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Round Lake Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Round Lake Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Round Lake Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Round Lake Heights 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.