Best PlacesStarks, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Starks, 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.
Starks ranks 6,470th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Starks
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.
Starks' strengths and weaknesses
Where Starks ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Starks 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$1,380 a month, better than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Starks
A household needs to earn about $135,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Starks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $125,110; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Starks' effective rate of 2.12%, 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 Starks
Starks runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Starks.
Who works in Starks, and how
Work in Starks centers on wholesale trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 32%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Starks
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Starks.
What the weather is like in Starks, month by month
Starks sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 25° | 18° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 39° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Starks
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 28 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 Starks
Schools across Starks average a C−, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gilberts Elem SchC · 33% proficient
- Gary D Wright Elem SchD+ · 24% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hampshire Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Starks school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Starks 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 Starks against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Starks
Is Starks a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Starks ranks 6,470th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, population health, and big-city access, 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 Starks expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $436,804. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $125,110 median income, cost of living beats 94% of towns.
Is Starks safe?
Yes, Starks is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $167 per resident a year.
Compare Starks with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Starks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Starks 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.
Starks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Starks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Starks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Starks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Starks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Starks 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.