Best PlacesSolon Mills, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Solon Mills, 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.
Solon Mills ranks 11,806th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Solon Mills
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.
Solon Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Solon Mills ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
Where Solon Mills ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,371 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Solon Mills
A household needs to earn about $124,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Solon Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,353, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Solon Mills' effective rate of 2.10%, 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 Solon Mills
Solon Mills runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Solon Mills.
Who works in Solon Mills, and how
Work in Solon Mills centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Solon Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Solon Mills.
What the weather is like in Solon Mills, month by month
Solon Mills sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 24° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 60° |
| October | 62° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Solon Mills
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 38 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 Solon Mills
Schools across Solon Mills average a C+, better than 42% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Richmond Grade SchoolC · 31% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nippersink Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Richmond-burton High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Solon Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Solon Mills 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 Solon Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Solon Mills
Is Solon Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Solon Mills ranks 11,806th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and low disaster risk, 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 Solon Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $401,080. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $100,353 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Solon Mills safe?
Yes, Solon Mills is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $157 per resident a year.
Compare Solon Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Solon Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Solon Mills 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.
Solon Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Solon Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Solon Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Solon Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Solon Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Solon Mills 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.