Best PlacesEsmond, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Esmond, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Esmond ranks 20,343rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Esmond
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.
Esmond's strengths and weaknesses
Where Esmond ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.9 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- QuietBetter than 89% of towns
Where Esmond ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Esmond
A household needs to earn about $29,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Esmond home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,096, 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 Esmond's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Esmond
Esmond 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 Esmond.
Who works in Esmond, and how
Work in Esmond centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Esmond
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Esmond.
What the weather is like in Esmond, month by month
Esmond sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 18, with lows near 2. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 18° | 10° | 2° |
| April | 49° | 37° | 27° |
| July | 81° | 68° | 57° |
| October | 52° | 41° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Esmond
The nearest airport, Devils Lake Regional, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 380 miles away.
The best schools in and around Esmond
Schools across Esmond average a C+, better than 47% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rugby Ely Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Maddock Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Bm Hanson Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Leeds High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Rugby High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Harvey High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Esmond school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Esmond 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 Esmond against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Esmond
Is Esmond a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Esmond ranks 20,343rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, short commutes, and clean air, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Esmond expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $111,493. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $62,096 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Esmond safe?
Esmond is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $600 per resident a year.
Compare Esmond with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Esmond. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Esmond 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.
Esmond detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Esmond: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Esmond: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Esmond: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Esmond: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Esmond 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.