Best PlacesWichert, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wichert, 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.
Wichert ranks 20,058th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Wichert
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.
Wichert's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wichert ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Household income$109,637 median, better than 90% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Wichert ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wichert
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wichert home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $109,637, 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 Wichert's effective rate of 2.02%, 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 Wichert
Wichert 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 Wichert.
Who works in Wichert, and how
Work in Wichert centers on manufacturing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Wichert
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wichert.
What the weather is like in Wichert, month by month
Wichert 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 Wichert
Chicago Midway International sits about 51 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 Wichert
Schools across Wichert average an F, better than 1% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- St Anne Elem SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kankakee Junior High SchoolF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Kankakee High SchoolF · 8% proficient
- St Anne Comm High SchoolF · 8% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wichert school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wichert 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 Wichert against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wichert
Is Wichert a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wichert ranks 20,058th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, cell coverage, and big-city access, and lowest on the schools and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wichert expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $204,133. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $109,637 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Wichert safe?
Yes, Wichert is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $201 per resident a year.
Compare Wichert with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wichert. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wichert 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.
Wichert detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wichert: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wichert: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wichert: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wichert: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wichert 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.