Best PlacesGoodland, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Goodland, 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.
Goodland ranks 26,387th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on cheap car insurance, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Goodland
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.
Goodland's strengths and weaknesses
Where Goodland ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of towns
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 81% of towns
Where Goodland ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 17% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 18% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 20% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Goodland
A household needs to earn about $28,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Goodland home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,353, 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 Goodland's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Goodland
Goodland 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 Goodland.
Who works in Goodland, and how
Work in Goodland centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Goodland
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Goodland.
What the weather is like in Goodland, month by month
Goodland sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 65° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Goodland
The nearest airport, University of Illinois/Willard, is about 72 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 74 miles away.
The best schools in and around Goodland
Schools across Goodland average a C+, better than 46% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Newton Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- South Newton Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Tri-county Jr/sr High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- South Newton Senior High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Goodland school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Goodland 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 Goodland against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Goodland
Is Goodland a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Goodland ranks 26,387th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, walkability, and short commutes, and lowest on tree cover and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Goodland expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $107,858. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $62,353 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Goodland safe?
Goodland is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $297 per resident a year.
Compare Goodland with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Goodland. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Goodland 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.
Goodland detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Goodland: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Goodland: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Goodland: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Goodland: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Goodland 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.