3) Highland Park
Everybody loves Highland Park, especially those who need to make the daily commute into Chicago City. Just 26 miles from downtown Chicago, Highland Park has a population of around 30,000 people. If you don’t need to venture into the big city very often, downtown Highland Park has plenty to keep you occupied with its own great shopping and restaurant district. Highland Park has an impressively low crime rate, 56 percent lower than the Illinois average. Highland Park also has some great schools that achieve consistently high graduation rates and a very healthy housing market. Located in Lake County on the North Shore of the Chicago Met area, Highland Park has all the benefits of living in a big city but without the traffic, crime or noise. A roof over your head in Highland Park doesn’t come cheap though as home values are over 200 percent higher than the Illinois average.
