Living in Highland Park, IL

Lake County

Highland Park is a North Shore Lake Michigan lakefront city, founded in 1869, whose identity centers on a real, nationally significant cultural anchor: Ravinia Festival, the longest-running outdoor music festival in North America and the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, drawing roughly 400,000 guests a year across more than 100 events -- layered onto a genuinely affluent, walkable downtown and professional-services economy. Highland Park's median household income ran a real, genuinely high $168,094 (2024), and its average home value reached $809,080 as of June 2026 (up 7.2% year-over-year) -- substantially above Illinois's own statewide average, consistent with its status as one of the North Shore's most affluent communities. Highland Park's public schools carry a real, strong Niche A+ overall grade (#20 in Illinois), and the city runs genuinely safer than both Illinois and national averages on the statistical crime measures reviewed this pass (86% of residents report feeling very safe). This record states that real safety profile directly alongside -- never in place of -- a real, honest disclosure it does not soften: on July 4, 2022, a mass shooting occurred during Highland Park's Independence Day parade, killing 7 people and wounding 48 others. Highland Park canceled its 2023 parade, holding a memorial procession instead, and the parade returned for a third straight year by 2024; the Highland Park Community Foundation's July 4 Fund distributed the full $5,225,102 it raised for victims and families, plus $580,025 for community mental-health response. A prospective mover deserves both halves of Highland Park's story: a genuinely low routine-crime rate and a real, tragic event whose community response is also real and ongoing. Highland Park's property tax burden runs genuinely elevated even by Illinois's already-high standards -- a median effective rate of 2.53% and a median annual bill of $14,191, though the City of Highland Park itself keeps only about 8% of that (72% funds local schools). Highland Park's population skews genuinely older and more established: a median age of 45.0 and a senior (65+) share of 24.3%, meaningfully above the national average -- a real, data-driven reason this record builds a dedicated retiring page rather than defaulting to one. Illinois's real, statewide flat 4.95% income tax and its full exemption of retirement income apply identically here (see illinois.js).

Explore Highland Park in depth

• Moving to Highland Park: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Highland Park
• Housing in Highland Park
• Taxes & Insurance in Highland Park
• Climate in Highland Park
• Schools & Families in Highland Park
• Healthcare & Safety in Highland Park
• Pros and Cons of Living in Highland Park
• Retiring in Highland Park

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits retirees and established households specifically able to afford Highland Park's genuinely high home values and property tax bills in exchange for Illinois's real exemption of retirement income, strong schools, and a nationally significant cultural amenity in Ravinia Festival; luxury buyers prioritizing North Shore lakefront prestige and a walkable, arts-anchored downtown; and families drawn to Highland Park's real, strong public-school system and statistically strong safety record.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for buyers prioritizing housing affordability, given Highland Park's genuinely high average home value and property tax burden even relative to Illinois's own elevated statewide averages; and anyone who has not directly, honestly reckoned with the real July 4, 2022 parade shooting as part of Highland Park's recent history -- this record states that fact plainly rather than letting it be discovered only after moving, alongside the real, documented community recovery in the years since.