Best PlacesDune Acres, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dune Acres, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Dune Acres ranks 14,417th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Dune Acres
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.
Dune Acres' strengths and weaknesses
Where Dune Acres ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 87% of towns
Where Dune Acres ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 12% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,024 a month, better than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dune Acres
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dune Acres home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $102,847, 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 Dune Acres' effective rate of 1.05%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Dune Acres
Dune Acres 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 Dune Acres.
Who works in Dune Acres, and how
Work in Dune Acres centers on manufacturing and finance & insurance. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Dune Acres
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Dune Acres.
What the weather is like in Dune Acres, month by month
Dune Acres sees roughly 104 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 39° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 63° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Dune Acres
Chicago Midway International sits about 36 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 9.4 million passengers in 2025, with 113 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Dune Acres
Schools across Dune Acres average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Newton Yost Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chesterton Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
Top high schools
- Chesterton Senior High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dune Acres school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dune Acres 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 Dune Acres against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dune Acres
Is Dune Acres a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dune Acres ranks 14,417th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, an educated workforce, and tree cover, and lowest on a weak job market and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dune Acres expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $292,900. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $102,847 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Dune Acres safe?
Dune Acres is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $277 per resident a year.
Compare Dune Acres with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dune Acres. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dune Acres 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.
Dune Acres detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dune Acres: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dune Acres: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dune Acres: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dune Acres: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dune Acres 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.