Best PlacesFort Totten, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Totten, 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.
Fort Totten ranks 36,077th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Totten
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.
Fort Totten's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fort Totten ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute14.7 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of towns
Where Fort Totten ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 4% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Totten
A household needs to earn about $12,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Totten home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,760, 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 Fort Totten's effective rate of 0.63%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fort Totten
Fort Totten 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 Fort Totten.
Who works in Fort Totten, and how
Work in Fort Totten centers on public administration and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Fort Totten
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Fort Totten.
What the weather is like in Fort Totten, month by month
Fort Totten sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 0. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 10° | 0° |
| April | 50° | 37° | 26° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 55° | 43° | 34° |
Flying in and out of Fort Totten
The nearest airport, Devils Lake Regional, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 349 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fort Totten
Schools across Fort Totten average a C, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sweetwater Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- New Rockford-sheyenne Elementary SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Minnewaukan Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central MiddleB− · 41% proficient
- Central Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- New Rockford-sheyenne High SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Minnewaukan High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Devils Lake High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Totten school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Totten 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 Fort Totten against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fort Totten
Is Fort Totten a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Totten ranks 36,077th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, a stable housing market, and clean air, and lowest on education levels and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Totten expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $45,727. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $54,760 median income, cost of living beats 14% of towns.
Is Fort Totten safe?
Fort Totten is safer than 6% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $856 per resident a year.
Compare Fort Totten with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Totten. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Totten 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.
Fort Totten detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Totten: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Totten: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Totten: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Totten: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Totten 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.