Best PlacesCobden, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cobden, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cobden ranks 15,446th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cobden
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.
Cobden's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cobden ranks high
- Short commute17.1 minutes each way, better than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 141 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
Where Cobden ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 5% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cobden
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cobden home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,788, 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 Cobden's effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Cobden
Cobden 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 Cobden.
Who works in Cobden, and how
Work in Cobden centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cobden
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cobden.
What the weather is like in Cobden, month by month
Cobden sees roughly 141 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 59° | 48° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Cobden
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 90 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 Cobden
Schools across Cobden average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Springfield ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Springfield SecondaryC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cobden school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cobden 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 Cobden against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cobden
Is Cobden a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cobden ranks 15,446th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, health care access, and state infrastructure, and lowest on internet speeds and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cobden expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,800. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $97,788 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Cobden safe?
Cobden is safer than 35% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $352 per resident a year.
Compare Cobden with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cobden. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cobden 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.
Cobden detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cobden: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cobden: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cobden: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cobden: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cobden 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.