Best PlacesBarney, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Barney, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Barney ranks 10,249th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Barney
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.
Barney's strengths and weaknesses
Where Barney ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 136 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
Where Barney ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 17% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 23% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Barney
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Barney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,269, 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 Barney's effective rate of 0.95%, 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 Barney
Barney's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Barney.
Who works in Barney, and how
Work in Barney centers on agriculture & forestry and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Barney
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Barney.
What the weather is like in Barney, month by month
Barney sees roughly 136 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 4. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 12° | 4° |
| April | 51° | 41° | 32° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Barney
The nearest airport, Hector International, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 208 miles away.
The best schools in and around Barney
Schools across Barney average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wyndmere Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Richland Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Hankinson Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Wyndmere High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Hankinson High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Richland Junior-senior High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Barney school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Barney 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 Barney against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Barney
Is Barney a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Barney ranks 10,249th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, health care access, and heat safety, and lowest on disaster risk and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Barney expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $201,338. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $87,269 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Barney safe?
Yes, Barney is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $248 per resident a year.
Compare Barney with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Barney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Barney 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.
Barney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Barney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Barney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Barney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Barney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Barney 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.