Best PlacesShadow Lawn, IL Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Shadow Lawn, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Shadow Lawn ranks 43,105th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#43,105
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Shadow Lawn

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Shadow Lawn area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Shadow Lawn's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Shadow Lawn with other towns.

Where Shadow Lawn ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
  • State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
  • QuietBetter than 70% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 66% of towns

Where Shadow Lawn ranks low

  • 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
  • Short commute38.3 minutes each way, better than only 7% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Shadow Lawn

A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shadow Lawn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,291, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$39,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$913
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $135,530 home
Median rent
$1,020
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$691
Property tax$177
Homeowners insurance$45

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 Shadow Lawn's effective rate of 1.56%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Shadow Lawn

Shadow Lawn's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4922%
50 to 6420%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Shadow Lawn.


Who works in Shadow Lawn, and how

Work in Shadow Lawn centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
8.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+3.9%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social20%
Construction19%
Retail trade11%
Manufacturing7%
Agriculture & forestry7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 83%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in Shadow Lawn

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Shadow Lawn.


What the weather is like in Shadow Lawn, month by month

Shadow Lawn sees roughly 70 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 October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January33°26°20°
April62°50°40°
July84°74°65°
October66°55°45°

Flying in and out of Shadow Lawn

Chicago Midway International sits about 46 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MDW
Chicago Midway International, about 46 miles
Airport size
Large hub
31st-busiest in the US, 113 nonstop destinations
Average drive
65 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Shadow Lawn

Schools across Shadow Lawn average a D−, better than 2% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shadow Lawn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Shadow Lawn 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 Shadow Lawn against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Shadow Lawn

Is Shadow Lawn a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shadow Lawn ranks 43,105th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, low disaster risk, and state infrastructure, 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 Shadow Lawn expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $135,530. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $51,291 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.

Is Shadow Lawn safe?

Yes, Shadow Lawn is safer than 58% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.


Compare Shadow Lawn with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shadow Lawn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shadow Lawn 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.

Shadow Lawn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Shadow Lawn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Shadow Lawn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Shadow Lawn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Shadow Lawn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Shadow Lawn detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.