Best PlacesExcelsior, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Excelsior, 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.
Excelsior ranks 607th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Excelsior
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.
Excelsior's strengths and weaknesses
Where Excelsior ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$154,613 median, better than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
Where Excelsior ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 35% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Excelsior
A household needs to earn about $207,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Excelsior home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $154,613, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Excelsior's effective rate of 1.12%, 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 Excelsior
Excelsior 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 Excelsior.
Who works in Excelsior, and how
Work in Excelsior centers on finance & insurance and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Excelsior
Excelsior has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Excelsior and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Excelsior, month by month
Excelsior sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 11° |
| April | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Excelsior
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 18 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 Excelsior
Schools across Excelsior average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deephaven ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Minnewashta ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Excelsior ElementaryA · 67% proficient
Top middle schools
- Minnetonka East MiddleA · 66% proficient
- Minnetonka West MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Chaska Middle School WestB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Minnetonka Senior HighA · 69% proficient
- Chanhassen High SchoolA− · 67% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Excelsior school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Excelsior 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 Excelsior against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Excelsior
Is Excelsior a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Excelsior ranks 607th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, civic engagement, and population health, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Excelsior expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $757,900. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $154,613 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Excelsior safe?
Excelsior is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $352 per resident a year.
Compare Excelsior with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Excelsior. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Excelsior 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.
Excelsior detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Excelsior: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Excelsior: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Excelsior: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Excelsior: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Excelsior 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.