Best PlacesEssig, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Essig, 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.
Essig ranks 6,598th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Essig
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.
Essig's strengths and weaknesses
Where Essig ranks high
- Short commute16.4 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 93% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 140 pleasant days a year, better than 89% of towns
Where Essig ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 28% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 30% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Essig
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Essig home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,594, 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 Essig's effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Essig
Essig runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Essig.
Who works in Essig, and how
Work in Essig centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Essig
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Essig.
What the weather is like in Essig, month by month
Essig sees roughly 140 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 59° | 48° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Essig
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 78 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Essig
Schools across Essig average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gfw Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Sleepy Eye ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Jefferson ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- New Ulm High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
- Sleepy Eye Sec.B · 47% proficient
- Gfw High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Essig school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Essig 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 Essig against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Essig
Is Essig a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Essig ranks 6,598th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, health care access, and state infrastructure, and lowest on biking and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Essig expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $298,864. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $83,594 median income, cost of living beats 76% of towns.
Is Essig safe?
Yes, Essig is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
Compare Essig with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Essig. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Essig 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.
Essig detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Essig: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Essig: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Essig: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Essig: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Essig 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.