Best PlacesButte, NE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Butte, 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.
Butte ranks 14,212th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Butte
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.
Butte's strengths and weaknesses
Where Butte ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- QuietBetter than 90% of towns
Where Butte ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Butte
A household needs to earn about $27,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Butte home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,358, 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 Butte'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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Butte
Butte 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 Butte.
Who works in Butte, and how
Work in Butte centers on transportation & warehousing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Butte
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Butte.
What the weather is like in Butte, month by month
Butte sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 23° | 15° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 50° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Butte
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 116 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 188 miles away.
The best schools in and around Butte
Schools across Butte average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Akron Westfield Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Atkinson Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Boyd County Elementary (butte)B− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Akron Westfield Middle SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top high schools
- Akron Westfield Senior High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- West Holt High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Keya Paha County High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Butte school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Butte 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 Butte against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Butte
Is Butte a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Butte ranks 14,212th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, good schools, and short commutes, and lowest on distance from a big city and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Butte expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $98,918. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $70,358 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Butte safe?
Butte is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $332 per resident a year.
Compare Butte with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Butte. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Butte 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.
Butte detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Butte: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Butte: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Butte: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Butte: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Butte 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.