Best PlacesBertram, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bertram, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bertram ranks 3,230th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bertram
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.
Bertram's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bertram ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- Household income$128,267 median, better than 95% of towns
Where Bertram ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 26% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 31% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bertram
A household needs to earn about $114,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bertram home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $128,267, 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 Bertram's effective rate of 0.99%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Bertram
Bertram runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bertram.
Who works in Bertram, and how
Work in Bertram centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bertram
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bertram.
What the weather is like in Bertram, month by month
Bertram sees roughly 109 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 14° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Bertram
The nearest airport, The Eastern Iowa, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 186 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bertram
Schools across Bertram average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Washington Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Erskine Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mount Vernon Middle SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Mckinley Steam AcademyB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Mount Vernon High SchoolA · 79% proficient
- George Washington High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bertram school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bertram 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 Bertram against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bertram
Is Bertram a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bertram ranks 3,230th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, civic engagement, and an educated workforce, and lowest on noise and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bertram expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $424,400. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $128,267 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Bertram safe?
Bertram is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $367 per resident a year.
Compare Bertram with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bertram. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bertram 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.
Bertram detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bertram: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bertram: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bertram: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bertram: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bertram 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.