Best PlacesGarretson, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garretson, 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.
Garretson ranks 11,564th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Garretson
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.
Garretson's strengths and weaknesses
Where Garretson ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 151 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 91% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
Where Garretson ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 27% of towns
- School gradeC, better than only 34% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 37% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Garretson
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garretson home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,265, 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 Garretson's effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Garretson
Garretson 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 Garretson.
Who works in Garretson, and how
Work in Garretson centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Garretson
Garretson has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Garretson and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garretson, month by month
Garretson sees roughly 151 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 17° | 9° |
| April | 58° | 44° | 34° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 61° | 48° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Garretson
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 170 miles away.
The best schools in and around Garretson
Schools across Garretson average a C, better than 34% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Baltic Elementary - 02B− · 40% proficient
- Garretson Elementary - 02D · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dell Rapids Middle School - 03A− · 55% proficient
- Brandon Valley Intermediate - 07A− · 54% proficient
- Baltic Middle School - 03B− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Brandon Valley High School - 01A · 68% proficient
- Baltic High School - 01A− · 60% proficient
- Dell Rapids High School - 01B+ · 55% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garretson school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garretson 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 Garretson against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Garretson
Is Garretson a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garretson ranks 11,564th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, heat safety, and the weather, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Garretson expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $290,939. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $79,265 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Garretson safe?
Garretson is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $374 per resident a year.
Compare Garretson with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garretson. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garretson 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.
Garretson detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garretson: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garretson: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garretson: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garretson: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garretson 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.