Best PlacesCold Spring, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cold Spring, 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.
Cold Spring ranks 5,847th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cold Spring
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.
Cold Spring's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cold Spring ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
Where Cold Spring ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,847 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 27% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 31% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cold Spring
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cold Spring home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $89,115, 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 Cold Spring's effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Cold Spring
Cold Spring runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cold Spring.
Who works in Cold Spring, and how
Work in Cold Spring centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Cold Spring
Cold Spring has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Cold Spring and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cold Spring, month by month
Cold Spring sees roughly 125 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 6. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 14° | 6° |
| April | 53° | 42° | 33° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 57° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Cold Spring
The nearest airport, St. Cloud Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cold Spring
Schools across Cold Spring average a B+, better than 73% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Richmond ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Albany ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Cold Spring ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Albany Area Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Rocori MiddleB · 45% proficient
- South Junior HighC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Albany Area High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Rocori Senior HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Eden Valley SecondaryB · 49% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cold Spring school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cold Spring 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 Cold Spring against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cold Spring
Is Cold Spring a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cold Spring ranks 5,847th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, state infrastructure, and walkability, 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 Cold Spring expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $336,436. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $89,115 median income, cost of living beats 72% of towns.
Is Cold Spring safe?
Yes, Cold Spring is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $257 per resident a year.
Compare Cold Spring with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cold Spring. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cold Spring 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.
Cold Spring detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cold Spring: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cold Spring: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cold Spring: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cold Spring: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cold Spring 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.