Best PlacesSpires, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Spires, 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.
Spires ranks 28,508th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Spires
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.
Spires' strengths and weaknesses
Where Spires ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 82% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 78% of towns
Where Spires ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- 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
- BikingBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Spires
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spires home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,301, 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 Spires' effective rate of 2.04%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Spires
Spires 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 Spires.
Who works in Spires, and how
Work in Spires centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Spires
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Spires.
What the weather is like in Spires, month by month
Spires sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 63° | 51° | 41° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Spires
The nearest airport, Central Il Regional/Bloomington- Normal, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 88 miles away.
The best schools in and around Spires
Schools across Spires average a D+, better than 12% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Flanagan Elem SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Fieldcrest Intermediate SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Roanoke-benson Jr High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Fieldcrest High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Flanagan-cornell High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spires school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spires 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 Spires against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Spires
Is Spires a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spires ranks 28,508th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low disaster risk, and big-city access, and lowest on tree cover and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Spires expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $142,140. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $85,301 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Spires safe?
Spires is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $281 per resident a year.
Compare Spires with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spires. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spires 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.
Spires detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spires: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spires: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spires: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spires: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spires 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.