Best Places55444, MN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 55444, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

55444 ranks 2,649th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#2,649
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in 55444

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 55444 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

55444's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%A stable housing market
Top 10%Biking
Top 10%Population health
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 55444 with other zip codes.

Where 55444 ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • Health outlookBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than 92% of zip codes

Where 55444 ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 3% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than only 14% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 22% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 26% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than only 36% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 55444

A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 55444 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $117,718, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$88,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,052
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $328,244 home
Median rent
$1,868
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,674
Property tax$269
Homeowners insurance$109

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 55444's effective rate of 0.98%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 55444

55444 runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.2
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1827%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6421%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 55444.


Who works in 55444, and how

Work in 55444 centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
13%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
−1.0%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social22%
Manufacturing20%
Professional & technical8%
Retail trade8%
Finance & insurance6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 83%
  • Work from home 13%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 55444

55444 has more parkland per resident than 86% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 55444 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Parkland
139 acres
about 8.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 86% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 55444, month by month

55444 sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January25°18°11°
April56°45°36°
July85°74°64°
October60°50°41°

Flying in and out of 55444

Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 16 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MSP
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 16 miles
Airport size
Large hub
17th-busiest in the US, 195 nonstop destinations
Average drive
23 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 55444

Schools across 55444 average a C, better than 39% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 55444 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


55444 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 55444 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 55444

Is 55444 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 55444 ranks 2,649th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on a stable housing market, biking, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 55444 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $328,244. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $117,718 median income, cost of living beats 94% of zip codes.

Is 55444 safe?

55444 is safer than 37% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.


Compare 55444 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 55444. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 55444 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

55444 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 55444: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 55444: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 55444: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 55444: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

55444 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.