Best PlacesSouthern View, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Southern View, 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.
Southern View ranks 33,699th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Southern View
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.
Southern View's strengths and weaknesses
Where Southern View ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute16.3 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
Where Southern View ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- 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
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Southern View
A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Southern View home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,078, 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 Southern View's effective rate of 1.74%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Southern View
Southern View runs older than the country, 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 Southern View.
Who works in Southern View, and how
Work in Southern View centers on public administration and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Southern View
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Southern View.
What the weather is like in Southern View, month by month
Southern View sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 29° | 22° |
| April | 66° | 54° | 44° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Southern View
The nearest airport, Abraham Lincoln Capital, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 80 miles away.
The best schools in and around Southern View
Schools across Southern View average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Laketown Elem SchoolD− · 16% proficient
- Southern View Elem SchoolF · 5% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jefferson Middle SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Springfield Southeast High SchD− · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Southern View school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Southern View 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 Southern View against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Southern View
Is Southern View a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Southern View ranks 33,699th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, walkability, and biking, and lowest on noise and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Southern View expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $111,282. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $69,078 median income, cost of living beats 66% of towns.
Is Southern View safe?
Southern View is safer than 13% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $390 per resident a year.
Compare Southern View with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Southern View. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Southern View 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.
Southern View detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Southern View: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Southern View: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Southern View: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Southern View: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Southern View 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.