Best PlacesHomer, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Homer, 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.
Homer ranks 15,509th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Homer
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.
Homer's strengths and weaknesses
Where Homer ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 91% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 145 pleasant days a year, better than 91% of towns
- Household income$108,311 median, better than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 84% of towns
Where Homer ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Homer
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Homer home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $108,311, 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 Homer's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 Homer
Homer runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Homer.
Who works in Homer, and how
Work in Homer centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Homer
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Homer.
What the weather is like in Homer, month by month
Homer sees roughly 145 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 22, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22° | 13° | 5° |
| April | 52° | 40° | 30° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 60° |
| October | 57° | 45° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Homer
The nearest airport, Jamestown Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 295 miles away.
The best schools in and around Homer
Schools across Homer average a B−, better than 58% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Louis L'amour Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- S.g. Reinertsen ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
- Ellen Hopkins ElementaryB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jamestown Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Horizon Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Moorhead High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Jamestown High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Montpelier High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Homer school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Homer 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 Homer against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Homer
Is Homer a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Homer ranks 15,509th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, the weather, and high incomes, 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 Homer expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,563. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $108,311 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Homer safe?
Homer is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $697 per resident a year.
Compare Homer with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Homer. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Homer 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.
Homer detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Homer: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Homer: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Homer: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Homer: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Homer 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.