Best PlacesBazine, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bazine, 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.
Bazine ranks 20,110th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bazine
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.
Bazine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bazine ranks high
- Cheap childcare$467 a month, better than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- Short commute19.5 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
Where Bazine ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bazine
A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bazine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $90,000, 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 Bazine's effective rate of 1.55%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bazine
Bazine runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bazine.
Who works in Bazine, and how
Work in Bazine centers on agriculture & forestry and other services. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Bazine
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bazine.
What the weather is like in Bazine, month by month
Bazine sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 29° | 19° |
| April | 70° | 53° | 40° |
| July | 93° | 79° | 66° |
| October | 72° | 55° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Bazine
The nearest airport, Hays Regional, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 274 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bazine
Schools across Bazine average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Western Plains South Elem/jr HighD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Western Plains HighD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bazine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bazine 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 Bazine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bazine
Is Bazine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bazine ranks 20,110th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state infrastructure, and quiet, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bazine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $114,600. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $90,000 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Bazine safe?
Bazine is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $302 per resident a year.
Compare Bazine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bazine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bazine 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.
Bazine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bazine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bazine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bazine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bazine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bazine 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.