Palos Park Ranked Among Chicago's Top Suburbs

Palos Park might not be considered the top Chicago suburb, but it’s still among the best, according to a study by real estate blog Movoto.

Palos Park tied with La Grange for fifth place among the top 10, but Palos Park’s quiet and peaceful environment, paired with safe community and excellent schools set it apart from the others in the bunch.

“Palos Park is nestled among a dense wooded area. If you move here, you’ll be surrounded by hills, creeks, oak trees, and a more rural setting than most of the places we’ve looked at so far.

“It’s safe, the schools are some of the finest, and all around, it’s a wonderful place to come home. … Just be prepared for the commute.”

Check out the full suburban ranking.

1. Burr Ridge (tie)
1. Park Ridge (tie)
3. Glenview
4. Kenilworth
5. La Grange (tie)
5. Palos Park (tie)
7. La Grange Park (tie)
7. Western Springs (tie)
9. Wilmette
10. Willow Springs

Methodology

Movoto used business listings and AreaVibes to research all of the suburbs surrounding Chicago in terms of the criteria below. If a place didn’t have complete data, it wasn’t included in the analysis, leaving a list of 29 places.

Criteria:

• Amenities per capita
• Standard of living (cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student to teacher ratio)
• Total crimes
• Violent crimes
• High school graduation rate
• Average commute time

For each criteria, researchers ranked the places with scores from one to 29. They averaged these scores into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest scores went to the best suburbs.

Read more about the ranking from Movoto.