Pistakee HighlandsIL
A town of 3,374.
Is Pistakee Highlands a good place to live?
Pistakee Highlands is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B overall, 392nd among Illinois's 767 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $103K. It also does better than most on health: it is healthier than 75% of U.S. towns. A typical home there costs about $217K, 2.4 years of the Chicago metro’s $91K median household income. Pistakee Highlands’ mean commuting time is 36 minutes, against 26 minutes in Illinois’ towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. Only 30 of Illinois’ 1,285 towns score lower on hazard risk.
What makes Pistakee Highlands stand out
Where Pistakee Highlands beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
99% of working residents leave Pistakee Highlands for work
Where Pistakee Highlands’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Pistakee Highlands grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Illinois), ordered by how far Pistakee Highlands is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Pistakee Highlands: who provides what
Pistakee Highlands is unincorporated, so McHenry County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Pistakee Highlands.
Pistakee Highlands sends most of its workers to Chicago and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Illinois (mostly inland flooding) and has little public open land.
Pistakee Highlands has a very high natural-hazard risk, chiefly from inland flooding
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 96% of Illinois towns, with expected losses of about $530 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
90 flood insurance claims have been paid in Pistakee Highlands since 1979. Pistakee Highlands’ risk rating from FEMA comes in at 86 of 100. 69% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by cold waves at 15%.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents commute out of Pistakee Highlands
Pistakee Highlands has 31 jobs for its 1,605 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 36 minutes, against 27.8 across Illinois.
The median commute is under 18 miles. Among working residents in Pistakee Highlands, 0.8% work locally. The top destinations are Chicago (9%), McHenry (7%) and Johnsburg (6%).
| Pistakee Highlands | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $103,000 | $83,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.8% | 8.4% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 7.5% | 8.4% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
For health, Pistakee Highlands earns a B+
Just over one in ten adults worry about having enough food in Pistakee Highlands. On the CDC’s 32 measures, Pistakee Highlands is ahead of Illinois on 5 and behind on 2. Among adults here, 31% sleep under 7 hours and 21% get no exercise outside work.
| Pistakee Highlands | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 16% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 35% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 23% | 25% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 37% | 35% |
| What stands out | Pistakee Highlands | IL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.8% | 15.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7% | 9.9% |
| More adults with depression | 23.5% | 19.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Pistakee Highlands has four seasons and pleasant summers
In Pistakee Highlands, the typical July afternoon high is 83°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Conservation land takes up 0.1% of Pistakee Highlands
Just 1 of its 1,021 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Pistakee Highlands itself; its outdoors grade is C−.
Parks and preserves in Pistakee Highlands: one, of 1 acres.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lake Street Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
A home in Pistakee Highlands sells for about $305K at the median
Homes sold in Pistakee Highlands spent a median 60 days on the market. In Pistakee Highlands, the median rent is $1,906 a month. The share of households in Pistakee Highlands who live in a home they own: 90%.
| Pistakee Highlands | Illinois towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,906 a month | $1,128 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 90% | 75% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Six Flags Great America and 36 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Pistakee Highlands. Close and well known come first.
Big draw14 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great America3.0M visitors a year
32 mi Stadium & arenaAllstate Arena
30 mi MuseumMcDonald's #1 Store Museum
20 mi MuseumIllinois Railway Museum
26 mi TheatreAlpine Valley Music Theatre6 mi MuseumVolo Auto MuseumPhoto credits
Six Flags Great America: Feather Better, CC BY 4.0 · Allstate Arena: Nkon21, CC BY-SA 4.0 · McDonald's #1 Store Museum: Bruce Marlin, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Illinois Railway Museum: The original uploader was Slambo at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 · Alpine Valley Music Theatre: chad davis, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Everything we know about Pistakee Highlands
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Pistakee Highlands
About 3 of every 100 Pistakee Highlands residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Illinois.
About Pistakee Highlands
Census-designated place in Illinois, United States
Pistakee Highlands is a census-designated place (CDP) in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It consists primarily of an unincorporated area of McHenry County adjoining Pistakee Bay, within the McHenry post office, and is located just northeast of Johnsburg. Per the 2020 census, the population was 3,237.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.6 sq mi
- Elevation
- 741 ft
- Area code
- 815
Pistakee Highlands’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Pistakee Highlands.
| Town | IL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pistakee Highlands | #392 | B | C+ | — | B− | B+ |
| Johnsburg | #377 | B | C+ | — | B | B+ |
| Spring Grove | #172 | A | D | A | A− | A− |
Pistakee Highlands and Johnsburg report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Pistakee Highlands with a neighbor →
Questions about Pistakee Highlands
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Pistakee Highlands, IL a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Pistakee Highlands grades B overall, better than 61% of U.S. towns and #392 of 767 in Illinois. It grades B+ for health and B− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Pistakee Highlands, IL expensive?
The typical home is worth about $217,000, 27% below the Illinois typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.