Best PlacesBancroft, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bancroft, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bancroft ranks 13,964th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bancroft
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.
Bancroft's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bancroft ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 202 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Short commute20.2 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
Where Bancroft ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 22% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bancroft
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bancroft home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,980, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Bancroft's effective rate of 1.00%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bancroft
Bancroft runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bancroft.
Who works in Bancroft, and how
Work in Bancroft centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Bancroft
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bancroft.
What the weather is like in Bancroft, month by month
Bancroft sees roughly 202 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 17° | 11° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 60° | 49° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Bancroft
The nearest airport, Mason City Municipal, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 81 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bancroft
Schools across Bancroft average a C, better than 39% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lakeview ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Halverson ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Sibley ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Southwest MiddleC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Albert Lea Senior HighC− · 29% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bancroft school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bancroft 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 Bancroft against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bancroft
Is Bancroft a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bancroft ranks 13,964th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, state infrastructure, and short commutes, and lowest on civic engagement and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bancroft expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,722. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,980 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Bancroft safe?
Yes, Bancroft is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $205 per resident a year.
Compare Bancroft with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bancroft. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bancroft 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.
Bancroft detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bancroft: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bancroft: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bancroft: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bancroft: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bancroft detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.