Best PlacesCrary, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Crary, 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.
Crary ranks 9,494th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Crary
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.
Crary's strengths and weaknesses
Where Crary ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
Where Crary ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Crary
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crary home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $96,250, 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 Crary's effective rate of 0.66%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Crary
Crary runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Crary.
Who works in Crary, and how
Work in Crary centers on agriculture & forestry and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 95%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Crary
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Crary.
What the weather is like in Crary, month by month
Crary sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 0. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 10° | 0° |
| April | 50° | 37° | 26° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 55° | 43° | 34° |
Flying in and out of Crary
The nearest airport, Devils Lake Regional, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 338 miles away.
The best schools in and around Crary
Schools across Crary average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lakota Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Dakota Prairie Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Sweetwater Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Lakota High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Dakota Prairie High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Devils Lake High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Crary school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Crary 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 Crary against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Crary
Is Crary a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crary ranks 9,494th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, a stable housing market, and clean air, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Crary expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,000. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $96,250 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Crary safe?
Crary is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $444 per resident a year.
Compare Crary with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Crary. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Crary 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.
Crary detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Crary: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Crary: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Crary: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Crary: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Crary 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.