Best PlacesBattle Lake, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Battle Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Battle Lake ranks 11,702nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Battle Lake
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 Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Battle Lake ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 147 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 85% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Battle Lake ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 23% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Battle Lake
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Battle Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,971, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Battle Lake's effective rate of 0.65%, 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 Battle Lake
Battle Lake runs older than the country, 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 Battle Lake.
Who works in Battle Lake, and how
Work in Battle Lake centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Battle Lake
Battle Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Battle Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Battle Lake, month by month
Battle Lake sees roughly 147 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 12° | 5° |
| April | 52° | 41° | 33° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Battle Lake
The nearest airport, Hector International, is about 67 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 156 miles away.
The best schools in and around Battle Lake
Schools across Battle Lake average a B+, better than 80% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Battle Lake ElementaryA · 67% proficient
- Heart Of The Lake ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Henning ElementaryB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brandon-evansville Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Prairie Wind MiddleA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Perham Senior HighB+ · 53% proficient
- Brandon-evansville High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Battle Lake SecondaryB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Battle Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Battle Lake 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 Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Battle Lake
Is Battle Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Battle Lake ranks 11,702nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, state infrastructure, and the weather, and lowest on empty homes and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Battle Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $359,638. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $76,971 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Battle Lake safe?
Yes, Battle Lake is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $236 per resident a year.
Compare Battle Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Battle Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Battle Lake 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 Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Battle Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Battle Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Battle Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Battle Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Battle Lake 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.