Best PlacesBattle Creek, St. Paul, MN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Battle Creek, St. Paul, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Battle Creek, St. Paul ranks 2,831st of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#2,831
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Battle Creek, St. Paul

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Battle Creek, St. Paul area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Battle Creek, St. Paul's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%A stable housing market
Top 10%Few empty homes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Battle Creek, St. Paul with other neighborhoods.

Where Battle Creek, St. Paul ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Low vacancyBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
  • Tree shadeBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • State infrastructureBetter than 86% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than 86% of neighborhoods

Where Battle Creek, St. Paul ranks low

  • School gradeD−, better than only 8% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 14% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than only 22% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 26% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 31% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Battle Creek, St. Paul

A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Battle Creek, St. Paul home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $86,436, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$80,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,863
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $291,261 home
Median rent
$1,448
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,485
Property tax$281
Homeowners insurance$97

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 Battle Creek, St. Paul's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 7 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 Battle Creek, St. Paul

Battle Creek, St. Paul runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
33
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
10%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.9
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1827%
18 to 3426%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6417%
65 and older10%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Battle Creek, St. Paul.


Who works in Battle Creek, St. Paul, and how

Work in Battle Creek, St. Paul centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
13%
below the national average
Unemployment
7.6%
above the national average
Job growth
−0.2%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing16%
Health care & social16%
Retail trade12%
Hospitality & food10%
Education6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 80%
  • Work from home 13%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 7%

Life in Battle Creek, St. Paul

Battle Creek, St. Paul has more parkland per resident than 97% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Battle Creek, St. Paul and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
48
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 20.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 44% of neighborhoods
Parkland
1,318 acres
about 55.8 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 97% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Battle Creek, St. Paul, month by month

Battle Creek, St. Paul sees roughly 128 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 12. 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
January26°19°12°
April57°46°37°
July85°74°65°
October60°50°43°

Flying in and out of Battle Creek, St. Paul

Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 11 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 11 miles
Airport size
Large hub
17th-busiest in the US, 195 nonstop destinations
Average drive
16 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Battle Creek, St. Paul

Schools across Battle Creek, St. Paul average a D−, better than 8% of neighborhoods.

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 Battle Creek, St. Paul school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Battle Creek, St. Paul 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 Battle Creek, St. Paul against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Who Battle Creek, St. Paul suits

Families

Schools land around the 8th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

13% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 66% of neighborhoods.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Battle Creek, St. Paul

Is Battle Creek, St. Paul a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Battle Creek, St. Paul ranks 2,831st of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on a stable housing market, few empty homes, and tree cover, and lowest on the schools and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Battle Creek, St. Paul expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $291,261. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $86,436 median income, cost of living beats 69% of neighborhoods.

Is Battle Creek, St. Paul safe?

Battle Creek, St. Paul is safer than 52% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $459 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Battle Creek, St. Paul?

July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 26 with lows near 12. That works out to about 128 pleasant days a year, more than 66% of neighborhoods.

Is Battle Creek, St. Paul good for families?

Schools beat 8% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 52%, and childcare runs $1,682 a month.


Compare Battle Creek, St. Paul with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Battle Creek, St. Paul. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Battle Creek, St. Paul 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.

Battle Creek, St. Paul detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Battle Creek, St. Paul 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.