La Grange ranks 21st of 162 on a list of best and worst cities for families in Illinois while Westchester came in at 108, 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.
One of the areas that was analyzed was education. Jennifer Bialobok, a spokesperson for Lyons Township High School District 204, said she takes note of such lists, but doesn’t give them too much weight.
“There are a lot of lists and rankings,” she said. “We acknowledge them. We note them. But we’re not a number on a list. We’re much more than that.”
The data set includes data such as the percentage of families with young children, median family income and housing affordability.
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The categories compared include family life and fun, education, health and safety, affordability and socioeconomic environment.
La Grange’s overall score on the 100-point scale was 64.48. It ranked 20 for family fun, 51 for education, health and safety, 35 for affordability and 44 for socioeconomic environment.
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.
WalletHub’s ranking puts La Grange in the top 15 percent of best places for families in Illinois.
“I’d like to think the school districts have something to do with that,” Bialobok said.
Westchester’s overall score on the 100-point scale was 53.19. It ranked 159 for family fun, 45 for education, health and safety, 112 for affordability and 56 for socioeconomic environment.
Mike Gobber, broker/owner of Real Living Gobber Real Estate in Westchester, said he doesn’t give too much weight to such lists.
“People in the communities may argue over who’s best or worst but I don’t give to much weight to those lists,” he said. “I think people who are looking for a place to live don’t look at them either.”
He said the rankings are questionable because they can be crafted according to whatever data the lister chooses.
“You can put in any criteria you want and come up with a ranking,” he said.
He said Westchester has many family-friendly features starting with a housing stock that is solid because its 97 percent brick. He also praised the elementary school districts, the park district, and the community’s stability and spirit.
“It’s an older community and it has a strong community within it,” he said.
The top city on the Wallethub list was Morton, Ill., followed by Deerfield. Hinsdale ranked 6 and Naperville placed 10. The lowest ranked city was East St. Louis. Danville came in at 161..
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.