Best PlacesElkhart County, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Elkhart County, 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.
Elkhart County ranks 1,275th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on low disaster risk and fast internet. The weaker spots are noise, taxes, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Elkhart County
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.
The best areas in Elkhart County
The parts of Elkhart County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Middlebury
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and fewer homes sit empty.
Nappanee & Wakarusa
Schools score higher, though tree cover is thinner.
Elkhart
Health care is easier to reach, though fewer households have young kids.
Goshen
Biking is better.
Bristol
More residents vote, though prices have run up more.
Dunlap
Homes cost less, though it is noisier.
Granger
Elkhart County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 9%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Elkhart County's strengths and weaknesses
Elkhart County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, fast internet, and cheap car insurance carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, taxes, and civic engagement hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Elkhart County ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of counties
- BikingBetter than 91% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of counties
Where Elkhart County ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 13% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 17% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than only 25% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Elkhart County
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elkhart County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,709, 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 Elkhart County's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Elkhart County
Elkhart County 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 Elkhart County.
Who works in Elkhart County, and how
Work in Elkhart County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Elkhart County
Elkhart County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Elkhart County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Elkhart County growing, and who is moving in?
Elkhart County has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from South Bend, IN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Elkhart County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Elkhart County, month by month
Elkhart County sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 58° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 83° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 63° | 55° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Elkhart County
The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 96 miles away.
The best schools in and around Elkhart County
Schools across Elkhart County average a C, better than 41% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Middlebury Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Wakarusa Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Orchard View SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Wood Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Jimtown Junior High SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Northridge Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- North Wood High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Goshen High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Northridge High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elkhart County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elkhart County 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 Elkhart County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Elkhart County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 6% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Elkhart County
Is Elkhart County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elkhart County ranks 1,275th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low disaster risk, fast internet, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Elkhart County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $222,047. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $75,709 median income, cost of living beats 66% of counties.
Is Elkhart County safe?
Elkhart County is safer than 25% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $393 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Elkhart County?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 22. That works out to about 80 pleasant days a year, more than 38% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Elkhart County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Middlebury, Nappanee & Wakarusa, and Elkhart. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Elkhart County good for families?
Schools beat 41% of counties, crime safety beats 25%, and childcare runs $851 a month.
Is Elkhart County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 66% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 92% of counties. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Elkhart County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elkhart County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elkhart County 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.
Elkhart County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elkhart County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elkhart County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elkhart County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elkhart County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elkhart County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.