Best PlacesGardena, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gardena, 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.
Gardena ranks 18,556th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Gardena
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.
Gardena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gardena ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 83% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 81% of towns
Where Gardena ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gardena
A household needs to earn about $55,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gardena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $94,390, 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 Gardena's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Gardena
Gardena 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 Gardena.
Who works in Gardena, and how
Work in Gardena centers on education and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Gardena
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Gardena.
What the weather is like in Gardena, month by month
Gardena sees roughly 119 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 Gardena
The nearest airport, Minot International, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 433 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gardena
Schools across Gardena average a C+, better than 50% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bottineau Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Tgu-towner Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Tgu-towner High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Bottineau Junior-senior High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gardena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gardena 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 Gardena against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gardena
Is Gardena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gardena ranks 18,556th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, health care access, and low taxes, and lowest on tree cover 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 Gardena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $216,051. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $94,390 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Gardena safe?
Gardena is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $548 per resident a year.
Compare Gardena with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gardena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gardena 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.
Gardena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gardena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gardena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gardena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gardena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gardena 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.