Best PlacesDonnelly, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Donnelly, 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.
Donnelly ranks 20,653rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Donnelly
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.
Donnelly's strengths and weaknesses
Where Donnelly ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 89% of towns
Where Donnelly ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Donnelly
A household needs to earn about $181,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Donnelly home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,955, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Donnelly's effective rate of 0.28%, 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 Donnelly
Donnelly runs older 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 Donnelly.
Who works in Donnelly, and how
Work in Donnelly centers on health care & social and admin & support services. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Donnelly
Donnelly has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Donnelly and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Donnelly, month by month
Donnelly sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 22° | 12° |
| April | 52° | 38° | 26° |
| July | 85° | 68° | 48° |
| October | 58° | 42° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Donnelly
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 79 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Donnelly
Schools across Donnelly average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Donnelly ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Cambridge Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Cascade Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Payette Lakes Middle SchoolA · 67% proficient
Top high schools
- Mccall-donnelly High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Cascade Jr/sr High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Council Jr/sr High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Donnelly school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Donnelly 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 Donnelly against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Donnelly
Is Donnelly a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Donnelly ranks 20,653rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state finances, cheap car insurance, and low property taxes, and lowest on an overheated housing market and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Donnelly expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $744,965. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $88,955 median income, cost of living beats 32% of towns.
Is Donnelly safe?
Donnelly is safer than 34% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $396 per resident a year.
Compare Donnelly with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Donnelly. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Donnelly 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.
Donnelly detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Donnelly: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Donnelly: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Donnelly: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Donnelly: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Donnelly 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.