Best PlacesSugar Island, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sugar Island, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sugar Island ranks 32,238th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sugar Island
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.
Sugar Island's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sugar Island ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 79% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 76% of towns
Where Sugar Island ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 5% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sugar Island
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sugar Island home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,673, 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 Sugar Island's effective rate of 1.70%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sugar Island
Sugar Island 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 Sugar Island.
Who works in Sugar Island, and how
Work in Sugar Island centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Sugar Island
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sugar Island.
What the weather is like in Sugar Island, month by month
Sugar Island 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 62° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Sugar Island
Chicago Midway International sits about 55 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Sugar Island
Schools across Sugar Island average a D, better than 5% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chebanse Elem SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- St Anne Elem SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- John L Nash Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Central High SchoolD− · 13% proficient
- St Anne Comm High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sugar Island school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sugar Island 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 Sugar Island against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sugar Island
Is Sugar Island a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sugar Island ranks 32,238th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, low crime, and low disaster risk, and lowest on taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sugar Island expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $194,395. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $64,673 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Sugar Island safe?
Yes, Sugar Island is safer than 83% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $165 per resident a year.
Compare Sugar Island with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sugar Island. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sugar Island 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.
Sugar Island detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sugar Island: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sugar Island: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sugar Island: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sugar Island: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sugar Island 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.