Best PlacesGrand Forks, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Grand Forks metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Brenda Riskey, via wiki
Grand Forks ranks 68th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is air quality: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Grand Forks metro
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.
The best areas in Grand Forks
The towns and districts of the Grand Forks metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Grand Forks
Fewer homes sit empty and biking is better.
Grand Forks AFB
More households have young kids, though disaster risk is higher.
East Grand Forks
Local pay stretches less far and fewer residents vote.
Crookston
Crime runs higher and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Scores across Grand Forks run from about the 23rd to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Grand Forks' strengths and weaknesses
Grand Forks ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Short commutes is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Heat safety and biking follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Air quality, distance from a big city, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Grand Forks ranks high
- Short commute16.6 minutes each way, better than 99% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of metro areas
Where Grand Forks ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 32% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Grand Forks
A household needs to earn about $70,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grand Forks home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,821, 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 Grand Forks' effective rate of 1.08%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Grand Forks
Grand Forks runs younger 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 Grand Forks.
Who works in Grand Forks, and how
Work in Grand Forks centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Grand Forks
Grand Forks has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 87% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Grand Forks and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Grand Forks growing, and who is moving in?
Grand Forks has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Minneapolis, MN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Grand Forks go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Grand Forks, month by month
Grand Forks sees roughly 135 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 19, with lows near 2. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 19° | 10° | 2° |
| April | 51° | 39° | 29° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 56° | 45° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Grand Forks
The nearest airport, Grand Forks International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 278 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grand Forks
Schools across Grand Forks average a B−, better than 60% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Manvel Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Nathan Twining Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Larimore Elementary SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nathan Twining Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Schroeder Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- South Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Thompson High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Northwood High SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Red River High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grand Forks school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Grand Forks suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 81% of metro areas and health care access beats 71%.
Common questions about living in Grand Forks
Is Grand Forks a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grand Forks ranks 68th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on short commutes, heat safety, and biking, and lowest on air quality 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 Grand Forks expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $258,931. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $78,821 median income, cost of living beats 69% of metro areas.
Is Grand Forks safe?
Yes, Grand Forks is safer than 83% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $319 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Grand Forks?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 19 with lows near 2. That works out to about 135 pleasant days a year, more than 81% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Grand Forks?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Grand Forks, Grand Forks AFB, and East Grand Forks. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Grand Forks good for families?
Schools beat 60% of metro areas, crime safety beats 83%, and childcare runs $955 a month.
Is Grand Forks good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 69% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 68% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Grand Forks with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grand Forks. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grand Forks 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.
Grand Forks detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grand Forks: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grand Forks: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grand Forks: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grand Forks: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grand Forks 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.