How I Rate Southwest Suburb Towns (and What Each Star Actually Means)

by Brian Wittman

Every town guide I write ends with a star rating across eight categories. This page defines every one of them: what is measured, where the number comes from, and what separates three stars from four.

I am putting this in writing for a simple reason. Almost every town rating online tells you a place got an A or an 8 out of 10 and never tells you what was measured. That is not a rating, it is a feeling with a number attached. If I am going to hand you a score, you should be able to check my work and disagree with it.

Why publish the scoring system?

Because the same scale has to mean the same thing in every town or the comparison is worthless.

If Lockport gets two stars on taxes and Mokena gets four, that gap should come from a defined threshold, not from which town I was in a better mood about. Writing the cutoffs down is what keeps me consistent across eighteen guides written months apart.

It also lets you throw out the categories you do not care about. If you work from home, my train rating is irrelevant to you, and you should be able to see that instantly instead of wondering how much it moved some overall score.

Price relative to the area

What it measures: where the town's median sale price sits against the median of all the towns I cover.

Why it is framed that way: "value" is not a thing I can score honestly, because a cheaper house is not automatically a better buy. What I can score is position. You are comparing these towns against each other, so that is the comparison I run.

★★★★★ More than 15 percent below the area median
★★★★ 5 to 15 percent below
★★★ Within 5 percent either direction
★★ 5 to 15 percent above
★ More than 15 percent above

Source: median closed sale prices across all towns I cover, recalculated each quarter, with the date stamped in the guide.

Read this one carefully. One star does not mean bad. It means you are paying more, and in most cases you are paying more for something real: bigger lots, better schools, a shorter commute. The star tells you where your money goes further, not where you should buy.

Property taxes

What it measures: the town's median effective property tax rate, which is the actual bill divided by the assessor's market value.

★★★★★ Under 2.2 percent
★★★★ 2.2 to 2.5 percent
★★★ 2.5 to 2.8 percent
★★ 2.8 to 3.1 percent
★ Above 3.1 percent

Source: county assessor and treasurer records, cross-checked against at least two neighboring towns using identical methodology.

The effective rate is the honest number because it accounts for exemptions and for how the town actually assesses. Each guide also gives you the median annual bill in dollars, because a high rate on a modest house and a low rate on an expensive one can land in the same place.

Most guides get this wrong by quoting the county-wide rate as the town's rate. Those are frequently very different. Will County's median sits near 2.67 percent while individual towns in it run from the low twos to well past three.

Schools

What it measures: the summative designation and performance of the high school district serving the town.

★★★★★ Exemplary designation
★★★★ Commendable, with proficiency above state averages across ELA, math and science
★★★ Commendable
★★ Targeted Support
★ Comprehensive or Intensive Support

Source: Illinois State Board of Education report cards at illinoisreportcard.com.

On multiple districts. Several towns out here are served by more than one grade school district feeding a single high school. Lockport has five. The star scores the high school district, because that is the one every address in town shares. The guide names every elementary district separately, because which one you get depends entirely on your address, and that is something you verify on the specific parcel before you write an offer.

Parks and outdoor recreation

What it measures: what the public recreation system actually gives you.

★★★★★ Large park district, roughly 500-plus acres or 30-plus parks, an indoor recreation or aquatic facility, and direct access to a regional trail or forest preserve
★★★★ Substantial park system with either an indoor facility or regional trail access, not both
★★★ Solid neighborhood park coverage, limited indoor facilities, trails require a drive
★★ Basic park coverage, no significant indoor recreation
★ Minimal public recreation inside town

Source: the park district's own site, plus the relevant forest preserve district or state agency.

One honesty note that comes up more than you would think: some park districts operate facilities that are not physically in the town. Your resident rate covers them, but you are driving. Where that is true, the guide says so.

Dining and nightlife

What it measures: everyday food, sit-down restaurants, date-night options, and whether there is anywhere to get a drink, within town limits plus roughly a twenty-minute drive.

Twenty minutes is deliberate. We are spread out here. A ten-minute radius would score half these towns identically and tell you nothing useful.

★★★★★ Walkable downtown dining district, real independent restaurant count, bars or breweries in town, date night does not require leaving
★★★★ Good in-town variety including sit-down and date-night options, bar scene may take a short drive
★★★ Everyday and casual dining in town, date night is a drive
★★ Limited in-town dining, most options are a drive
★ Essentially no dining in town

Source: my own time in these towns, applied on the scale above. This is judgment, and I am labeling it as judgment rather than dressing it up as data.

Walkability

What it measures: whether you can reach anything on foot from a typical residential street.

★★★★★ Walk Score 70 or above
★★★★ 50 to 69
★★★ 30 to 49
★★ 15 to 29
★ Under 15

Source: published Walk Score for the town, named in each guide.

Most towns out here score one or two stars, and that is the true answer. This is a driving region. A town with a charming walkable downtown can still be a one-star walkability town if you cannot get to that downtown without a car from most of its neighborhoods. The guide will say which situation you are looking at.

Chicago access by train

What it measures: Metra service, specifically the line, weekday inbound train count, and whether weekend service exists.

★★★★★ 20 or more weekday inbound trains, with weekend service
★★★★ 12 to 19 weekday inbound, with weekend service
★★★ 12 or more weekday inbound, no weekend service
★★ Fewer than 12 weekday inbound
★ A handful of weekday trains, or no station at all

Source: Metra's published timetables, rechecked every quarter.

This is the category with the widest spread and the least understanding. Two towns fifteen minutes apart can be a world apart here. A station on the map is not the same as a usable commute. One town on the roster runs three inbound trains a day with no weekend service at all. Another runs more than twenty. Both have a Metra station.

Chicago access by car

What it measures: how quickly you reach a highway and how far you are from downtown.

★★★★★ Interstate access within about 5 minutes, and roughly 35 miles or less to downtown
★★★★ Interstate within about 10 minutes, 35 to 45 miles
★★★ Interstate within about 15 minutes, or 45 to 55 miles
★★ Highway access takes 15-plus minutes of local roads, or more than 55 miles
★ No convenient interstate access

Source: the actual highway network and measured distance.

I do not publish invented drive times. Distance and highway access I can measure. What your Tuesday at 7am actually looks like depends on which direction you are heading and what happened on I-55 that morning. Drive it yourself at the hour you would really be driving it, and say the number out loud before you buy.

What I will not rate, and why

You will not find a "good for families" score in my guides, or a "young and social" score, or anything else rating who a town suits rather than what a town has.

Two reasons.

The first is legal, and it is not a technicality. Familial status is a protected class under fair housing law. Rating towns by who they suit moves toward steering, which is exactly what those rules exist to prevent. I am not doing it, and you should be mildly suspicious of anyone who does.

The second is that those scores are not useful anyway. A five-star family rating tells you nothing you cannot get from the school designation, the park system and the price, all of which I already give you with sources attached. The composite just hides the inputs and asks you to trust the blend.

So I rate the place. You decide who it fits.

How often the ratings change

Every guide gets a quarterly data refresh, and the stars are revisited with it. Prices move, tax rates move, Metra changes timetables, restaurants open and close. Each guide carries the date its numbers were last verified, because a rating with a stale date is worse than no rating.

The thresholds above will also get recalibrated as the full set of towns is scored. If it turns out fifteen of eighteen towns land on the same number in a category, that band is badly cut and I will fix it rather than pretend the scale is working.

If something looks wrong to you, tell me. I would rather correct it than defend it.

The Bottom Line

Eight categories, every one with a published threshold. Six of them tied to a named public source you can check yourself: sale prices, county tax records, Illinois report cards, park district information, Walk Score, and Metra timetables. Two of them, dining and part of the parks read, resting on my own time in these towns and labeled that way. None of them rating who should live somewhere.

The stars exist to make comparison fast. The thresholds exist so you never have to take my word for any of it.

If you want to talk through what these numbers mean for a specific budget or a specific commute, that conversation is free, and it is the genuinely useful version of all this.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you rate towns in your guides?

Eight categories on a five-star scale: price relative to the area, property taxes, schools, parks and outdoor recreation, dining and nightlife, walkability, Chicago access by train, and Chicago access by car. Every category has a published threshold defining each star level, and six of the eight are tied to named public sources including county tax records, Illinois State Board of Education report cards, Walk Score and Metra timetables. The same thresholds apply in every guide so towns compare directly.

Are these town ratings objective?

Six of the eight are, in the sense that the threshold is arithmetic and the source is named, so you can recompute them. Dining rests on my own time in these towns, applied on a published scale, and part of the parks rating involves judgment about facility quality. Telling you which is which is the entire point of this page.

What does a low star rating mean?

It depends on the category, and price is the one people misread. One star on price means the town is more than 15 percent above the area median, which usually means you are paying more for something real like bigger lots or a shorter commute. It is a position, not a verdict. One star on train service, by contrast, means the service genuinely will not work as a daily commute.

Why do you not rate towns on whether they are good for families?

Because familial status is a protected class under fair housing law, and rating towns by who they suit moves toward steering. It is also less useful than it looks. The school designation, park system and pricing already tell you what you need, with sources attached, rather than hiding those inputs inside one composite number.

How often are the ratings updated?

Every guide gets a quarterly data refresh and the ratings are revisited then, with the verification date printed in each guide. The thresholds themselves also get recalibrated as more towns are scored, since a band that lands almost every town on the same number is not measuring anything.

Brian Wittman is a licensed real estate broker (Real Broker LLC), mortgage loan originator (NMLS #2646598, NEXA Mortgage, LLC, Equal Housing Lender), and life insurance producer (Levinson & Associates). This article is for educational purposes only and is not financial, lending, tax, or legal advice, an offer, or a commitment to lend; all loans are subject to credit approval. Information is accurate as of the publication date; for current details and full disclosures, visit https://bluejeanbroker.com/disclosures.