Chicago-Naperville-Elgin → Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario
Relocation analysis based on 7 federal data sources
Should you move?
Moving from Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario is unfavorable: BEA regional price parity goes from 103.6 to 106.4 (US = 100), and HUD 2-bedroom rent rises by $420/mo.
- -$446
- BLS median salary lower in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario
- 277 to 477
- violent crimes per 100K (FBI UCR, state-level)
- 13.4:1 to 20.8:1
- NCES student-teacher ratio
- $5,663
- DOL infant care higher / yr in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario
BEA Regional Price Parity, HUD Fair Market Rent, BLS OEWS, FBI UCR, NCES, and DOL. The table below lets you override the composite with your own priorities.
Cons of Moving
- - $420/mo more expensive rent (2BR)
- - Higher violent crime rate
- - Higher student-teacher ratios
- - More expensive childcare
- - More environmental violations
Purchasing power stays near-even: BEA RPP moves only from 103.6 to 106.4 (ratio 1.03), inside a ±5% band. HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent rises $420/mo ($5,040/yr) from $1,781 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to $2,201 in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin still leads on 7 of 7 federal dimensions, the origin keeps the edge. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario sits #385 of 387 metros on PlainRelocate livability (bottom third of the corpus). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is #329/387 on the same ranking. Composite verdict: Unfavorable. Override it with the dimension table below.
BLS OEWS median salary moves $446 lower ($77,100 → $76,654). Labor-market size: 4,480,500 tracked jobs at origin vs 1,694,510 at destination.
State retirement friendliness favors staying put: Illinois scores 58 (D, #31/51) vs California at 40 (F, #50/51). Full state tax and healthcare sub-scores sit in the retirement desk below.
State retirement friendliness
Primary-state scores from PlainRelocate's retirement registry (tax + healthcare + climate composite). Metro pairs use each metro's primary state abbreviation.
- Income tax
- 95
- Property tax
- 46
- Estate tax
- 50
- Healthcare
- 46
- Income tax
- 70
- Property tax
- 72
- Estate tax
- 100
- Healthcare
- 4
Full retirement ranking · Source composite documented on methodology (Tax Foundation + AARP tax guides + federal healthcare/climate inputs).
Salary Adjustment Calculator
Enter your current salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to see what you'd need to earn in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario to maintain the same purchasing power.
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro profile · Livability rankings · Methodology
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities, HUD Fair Market Rents, BLS OES, FBI UCR, NCES, DOL, EPA; retirement desk: Tax Foundation + AARP tax guides June 2026