Best PlacesCook, NE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cook, 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.
Cook ranks 27,940th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cook
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.
Cook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cook ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 87% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 79% of towns
Where Cook ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cook
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,747, 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 Cook's effective rate of 1.18%, 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 Cook
Cook 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 Cook.
Who works in Cook, and how
Work in Cook centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cook
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cook.
What the weather is like in Cook, month by month
Cook sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 42° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Cook
The nearest airport, Lincoln, is about 39 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 56 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cook
Schools across Cook average a B+, better than 74% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Elementary School At JohnsonA · 70% proficient
- Elementary School At SyracuseB+ · 55% proficient
- Johnson Co Central Elem-cookB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Middle School At SyracuseA · 62% proficient
- Hamburg Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- Johnson Co Central Middle SchB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- High School At JohnsonA · 70% proficient
- Sidney High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- High School At SyracuseA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cook 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 Cook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cook
Is Cook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cook ranks 27,940th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, cell coverage, and state infrastructure, and lowest on the weather and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $168,244. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $73,747 median income, cost of living beats 65% of towns.
Is Cook safe?
Cook is safer than 14% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
Compare Cook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cook 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.
Cook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cook 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.