Best PlacesHam Lake, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ham Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ham Lake ranks 1,244th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ham Lake
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.
Ham Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ham Lake ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of towns
- Household income$134,558 median, better than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
Where Ham Lake ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 27% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 39% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 40% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ham Lake
A household needs to earn about $115,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ham Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $134,558, 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 Ham Lake's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Ham Lake
Ham Lake runs older 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 Ham Lake.
Who works in Ham Lake, and how
Work in Ham Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ham Lake
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ham Lake.
What the weather is like in Ham Lake, month by month
Ham Lake sees roughly 124 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 19° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 84° | 75° | 64° |
| October | 60° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Ham Lake
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 26 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ham Lake
Schools across Ham Lake average a B+, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mckinley ElementaryA · 72% proficient
- Rum River ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Davinci AcademyA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oak View MiddleA− · 56% proficient
- Roosevelt MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Forest Lake ElementaryB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Forest Lake Area High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- St. Francis HighB · 48% proficient
- Andover High SchoolB · 46% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ham Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ham Lake 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 Ham Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ham Lake
Is Ham Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ham Lake ranks 1,244th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, what local pay buys, and civic engagement, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ham Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $439,802. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $134,558 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Ham Lake safe?
Yes, Ham Lake is safer than 92% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $174 per resident a year.
Compare Ham Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ham Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ham Lake 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.
Ham Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ham Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ham Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ham Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ham Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ham Lake 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.