Best PlacesElkhart, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Elkhart metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Derek Jensen ( Tysto ), CC BY 2.0, via commons
Elkhart ranks 264th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on education levels and noise. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Elkhart metro
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
The towns and districts of the Elkhart metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Middlebury
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and fewer homes sit empty.
Nappanee & Wakarusa
Schools score higher, though tree cover is thinner.
Downtown 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 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's strengths and weaknesses
Elkhart lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, cheap car insurance, and fast internet carry most of that.
The one real hole is education levels, near the bottom of the country. Noise and taxes also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Elkhart ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Short commute20.0 minutes each way, better than 86% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where Elkhart ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 14% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Elkhart
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Elkhart 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'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
Elkhart 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.
Who works in Elkhart, and how
Work in Elkhart 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
Elkhart has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Elkhart and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Elkhart growing, and who is moving in?
Elkhart 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 go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Elkhart, month by month
Elkhart 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
The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Elkhart
Schools across Elkhart average a C, better than 30% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Wakarusa Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Orchard View SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Jimtown Intermediate SchoolB · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Wood Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Jimtown Junior High SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Concord Junior High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- North Wood High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Northridge High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Edwardsburg High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Elkhart school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Elkhart 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 against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Elkhart 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
Is Elkhart a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Elkhart ranks 264th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, cheap car insurance, and fast internet, and lowest on education levels and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Elkhart 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 44% of metro areas.
Is Elkhart safe?
Elkhart is safer than 18% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $393 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Elkhart?
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 39% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Elkhart?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Middlebury, Nappanee & Wakarusa, and Downtown Elkhart. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Elkhart good for families?
Schools beat 30% of metro areas, crime safety beats 18%, and childcare runs $851 a month.
Is Elkhart good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 44% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 87% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Elkhart with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Elkhart. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Elkhart 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Elkhart: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Elkhart: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Elkhart: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Elkhart: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Elkhart 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.