Best PlacesFertile, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fertile, 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.
Fertile ranks 9,401st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Fertile
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.
Fertile's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fertile ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of towns
Where Fertile ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 30% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 31% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 37% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fertile
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fertile home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,559, 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 Fertile's effective rate of 1.02%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fertile
Fertile 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 Fertile.
Who works in Fertile, and how
Work in Fertile centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Fertile
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Fertile.
What the weather is like in Fertile, month by month
Fertile sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 10° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 35° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 61° | 49° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Fertile
The nearest airport, Mason City Municipal, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 113 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fertile
Schools across Fertile average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Central Springs Elem. Manly CampusA+ · 75% proficient
- Garner-hayfield-ventura Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Clear Creek Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Garner-hayfield-ventura Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Forest City Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Clear Lake Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
Top high schools
- Forest City High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Central Springs High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Garner-hayfield-ventura High SchoolA · 72% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fertile school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fertile 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 Fertile against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fertile
Is Fertile a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fertile ranks 9,401st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, state finances, and civic engagement, and lowest on noise and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fertile expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $175,872. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $83,559 median income, cost of living beats 74% of towns.
Is Fertile safe?
Fertile is safer than 49% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $287 per resident a year.
Compare Fertile with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fertile. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fertile 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.
Fertile detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fertile: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fertile: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fertile: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fertile: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fertile 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.