Family-friendly village named the best place to live in Illinois. Here’s why
An Illinois village earned the title of best place to live in the state and best suburb in America in a new ranking. Several metro-east communities also received high marks in the report.
FULL STORY: Illinois village named the best suburb in America. How did the metro-east fare?
Here are key takeaways:
• Clarendon Hills was named the No. 1 best place to live in Illinois and the best suburb in America in Niche’s 2026 Best Places to Live in Illinois report, published in March.
• The village earned an A+ overall grade, with top marks for public schools and being “good for families.” Its lowest scores were a C+ for weather and B- for cost of living.
• Housing in Clarendon Hills is pricey, with a median owner-occupied home value of $605,800 and median monthly homeowner costs of $3,379 for those with a mortgage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• O’Fallon earned an A overall grade and was named the No. 1 best place to live in St. Clair County by Niche.
• Swansea, Fairview Heights and Edwardsville each received an A grade, while Belleville and Collinsville earned A- grades. East St. Louis received a C and Cahokia Township received a B-.
• Niche compiled rankings using data from the Census Bureau, the FBI and the National Climatic Data Center, among other sources.
• Illinois’ top 10 best places to live, per Niche: Clarendon Hills, Naperville, Riverside, Buffalo Grove, Kildeer, Lincolnshire, Printers Row, Western Springs, Long Grove and La Grange.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
