Best PlacesCannon Falls, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cannon Falls, 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.
Cannon Falls ranks 9,555th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cannon Falls
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.
Cannon Falls' strengths and weaknesses
Where Cannon Falls ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of towns
Where Cannon Falls ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,106 a month, better than only 16% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 31% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 35% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 42% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cannon Falls
A household needs to earn about $85,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cannon Falls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,636, 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 Cannon Falls' effective rate of 1.00%, 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 Cannon Falls
Cannon Falls 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 Cannon Falls.
Who works in Cannon Falls, and how
Work in Cannon Falls centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Cannon Falls
Cannon Falls has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Cannon Falls and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cannon Falls, month by month
Cannon Falls sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 10° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 61° | 50° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Cannon Falls
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 31 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cannon Falls
Schools across Cannon Falls average a C+, better than 54% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Goodhue ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
- Cannon Falls ElementaryB+ · 54% proficient
- Pinecrest ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hastings Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Twin Bluff SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Kenyon-wanamingo MiddleC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Hastings High SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Zumbrota-mazeppa Senior HighB+ · 57% proficient
- Cannon Falls SecondaryB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cannon Falls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cannon Falls 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 Cannon Falls against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cannon Falls
Is Cannon Falls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cannon Falls ranks 9,555th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, biking, and state infrastructure, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cannon Falls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $317,251. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $91,636 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Cannon Falls safe?
Cannon Falls is safer than 46% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $336 per resident a year.
Compare Cannon Falls with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cannon Falls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cannon Falls 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.
Cannon Falls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cannon Falls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cannon Falls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cannon Falls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cannon Falls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cannon Falls 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.