Downers Grove ranks 51st of 162 on a list of best and worst cities for families in Illinois, according to a study by WalletHub, a financial website.
WalletHub looked at 21 key indicators of ideal family conditions to come up with its list.
Village council member William Waldack said he was not impressed by WalletHub’s ranking of Downers Grove in the top third of Illinois cities.
“It’s too low,” he joked. “We’ve got to be in the top 10 – we have been on other lists out there.”
The data set ranges from the percentage of families with young children to median family income to housing affordability.
The categories compared include family life and fun, education, health and safety, affordability and socioeconomic environment.
Downers Grove’s overall score on the 100-point scale was 60.25. It ranked 138 for family fun, 75 for education, health and safety, 39 for affordability and 24 for socioeconomic environment.
Waldack said the village has many superior amenities that benefit families.
“I’ve always liked the schools, the parks. A few years ago, we were ranked pretty high as a place for seniors to retire, which was surprising,” he said.
Each category was assigned a value between 0 and 100, with 100 the best value for that metric and 0 the worst. Overall scores were calculated for each city and a final ranking was made using the weighted average across all metrics, according to WalletHub.
Under family and fun, for instance, the study looked at the number of playgrounds per 100,000 residents and the number of families with children younger than 18. Under education, health and safety, the study weighed such items as high school graduation rate, air quality, number of pediatricians per 100,000 residents, percentage of children lacking health insurance, and the violent and property crime rates per 100,000 residents.
For the affordability category, the study analyzed the cost of housing and general affordability. For the socioeconomic environment, it looked at items such as the separation and divorce rates, percentage of two-parent families, percentage of households receiving food stamps, unemployment rate, wealth gap and foreclosure rate.
The top city on the list was Morton, Illinois, followed by Deerfield . Hinsdale ranked 6 and Naperville placed 10. The lowest ranked city was East St. Louis. Danville came in at 161.
Waldack said the village’s amenities and news about them can influence homebuyers to consider a house in the village.
“I think people look at them. It calls attention,” he said.
More Top Picks Best Wraparound Sunglasses For Migraines
He previously had a neighbor who moved from New York to the area and chose to live in Downers Grove because he had heard about one of the village’s amenities.
“He pretty much picked Downers Grove because of the library,” Waldack said.
Despite acknowledging that they can have influence, Waldack said he takes such surveys and lists with a grain of salt.
“You brag about the wins and you say ‘Nah’ to the ones where you don’t rank so high,” he said.
According to WalletHub, which was founded in 2012, the data used to create the rankings were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois State Board of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Renwood RealtyTrac LLC, SchoolDigger.com, Yelp, TripAdvisor and WalletHub research.