Best PlacesVernon Hills, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Vernon Hills, 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.
Vernon Hills ranks 237th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Vernon Hills
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.
Vernon Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Vernon Hills ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of cities
Where Vernon Hills ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 31% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,267 a month, better than only 37% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Vernon Hills
A household needs to earn about $143,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Vernon Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $149,141, 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 Vernon Hills' effective rate of 2.46%, 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 Vernon Hills
Vernon Hills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Vernon Hills.
Who works in Vernon Hills, and how
Work in Vernon Hills centers on professional & technical and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Vernon Hills
Vernon Hills has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of cities and more parkland per resident than 98% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Vernon Hills and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Vernon Hills, month by month
Vernon Hills sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Vernon Hills
Chicago O'Hare International sits about 18 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 Vernon Hills
Schools across Vernon Hills average a B, better than 62% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Country Meadows Elem SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Hawthorn Elem School SouthB · 46% proficient
- Hawthorn Townline Elem SchB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Daniel Wright Jr High SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Woodlawn Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
- Hawthorn Middle School SouthB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Adlai E Stevenson High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Vernon Hills High SchoolA− · 64% proficient
- Mundelein Cons High SchoolC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Vernon Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Vernon Hills 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 Vernon Hills against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Vernon Hills suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of cities and 29% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Vernon Hills
Is Vernon Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Vernon Hills ranks 237th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on population health, an educated workforce, and what local pay buys, 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 Vernon Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $445,865. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $149,141 median income, cost of living beats 94% of cities.
Is Vernon Hills safe?
Yes, Vernon Hills is safer than 61% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $219 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Vernon Hills?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 21. That works out to about 87 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of cities.
Is Vernon Hills good for families?
Schools beat 62% of cities, crime safety beats 61%, and childcare runs $1,267 a month.
Compare Vernon Hills with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Vernon Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Vernon Hills 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.
Vernon Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Vernon Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Vernon Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Vernon Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Vernon Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Vernon Hills 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.