Best PlacesCrystal, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Crystal, 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.
Crystal ranks 5,643rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Crystal
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.
Crystal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Crystal ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
Where Crystal ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 19% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 20% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Crystal
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crystal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,495, 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 Crystal's effective rate of 1.21%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Crystal
Crystal's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Crystal.
Who works in Crystal, and how
Work in Crystal centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Crystal
Crystal has more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Crystal and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Crystal, month by month
Crystal sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 18° | 11° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Crystal
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 12 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 Crystal
Schools across Crystal average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Forest ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
- Neill ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
- Meadow Lake ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- The Fair School - CrystalD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Robbinsdale Armstrong Senior HighB · 47% proficient
- Robbinsdale Cooper Senior HighC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Crystal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Crystal 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 Crystal against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Crystal suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 87% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 21% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Crystal
Is Crystal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crystal ranks 5,643rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and walkability, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Crystal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $296,922. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $93,495 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Crystal safe?
Crystal is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $422 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Crystal?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 25 with lows near 11. That works out to about 123 pleasant days a year, more than 82% of towns.
Is Crystal good for families?
Schools beat 20% of towns, crime safety beats 25%, and childcare runs $1,682 a month.
Compare Crystal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Crystal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Crystal 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.
Crystal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Crystal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Crystal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Crystal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Crystal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Crystal 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.