Best PlacesToms Prairie, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Toms Prairie, 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.
Toms Prairie ranks 35,961st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Toms Prairie
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.
Toms Prairie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Toms Prairie ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute21.7 minutes each way, better than 81% of towns
- QuietBetter than 81% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 65% of towns
Where Toms Prairie ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 62 pleasant days a year, better than only 12% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Toms Prairie
A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Toms Prairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,240, 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 Toms Prairie's effective rate of 1.40%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Toms Prairie
Toms Prairie 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 Toms Prairie.
Who works in Toms Prairie, and how
Work in Toms Prairie centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Toms Prairie
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Toms Prairie.
What the weather is like in Toms Prairie, month by month
Toms Prairie sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Toms Prairie
The nearest airport, Evansville Regional, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 115 miles away.
The best schools in and around Toms Prairie
Schools across Toms Prairie average a C, better than 30% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Jasper Elem SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Mount Erie Elem SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- North Side Elem SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Center Street Elem SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Cisne Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Cisne High SchoolD− · 16% proficient
- Fairfield Comm High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Toms Prairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Toms Prairie 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 Toms Prairie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Toms Prairie
Is Toms Prairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Toms Prairie ranks 35,961st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, short commutes, and quiet, 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 Toms Prairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $130,600. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $72,240 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Toms Prairie safe?
Toms Prairie is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $288 per resident a year.
Compare Toms Prairie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Toms Prairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Toms Prairie 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.
Toms Prairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Toms Prairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Toms Prairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Toms Prairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Toms Prairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Toms Prairie 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.