Best PlacesJacobs Prairie, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Jacobs Prairie, 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.
Jacobs Prairie ranks 8,741st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Jacobs Prairie
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.
Jacobs Prairie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Jacobs Prairie ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 83% of towns
Where Jacobs Prairie ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,847 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Jacobs Prairie
A household needs to earn about $109,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Jacobs Prairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,061, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Jacobs Prairie's effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Jacobs Prairie
Jacobs Prairie 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 Jacobs Prairie.
Who works in Jacobs Prairie, and how
Work in Jacobs Prairie centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Jacobs Prairie
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Jacobs Prairie.
What the weather is like in Jacobs Prairie, month by month
Jacobs Prairie sees roughly 123 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 33° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Jacobs Prairie
The nearest airport, St. Cloud Regional, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 72 miles away.
The best schools in and around Jacobs Prairie
Schools across Jacobs Prairie average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Albany ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Cold Spring ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Rockville ElementaryB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Albany Area Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Rocori MiddleB · 45% proficient
- North Junior HighD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Albany Area High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- Rocori Senior HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Apollo Senior HighC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Jacobs Prairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Jacobs Prairie 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 Jacobs Prairie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Jacobs Prairie
Is Jacobs Prairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Jacobs Prairie ranks 8,741st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, population health, and state infrastructure, and lowest on childcare costs and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Jacobs Prairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $418,784. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $97,061 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Jacobs Prairie safe?
Jacobs Prairie is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $303 per resident a year.
Compare Jacobs Prairie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Jacobs Prairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Jacobs Prairie 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.
Jacobs Prairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Jacobs Prairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Jacobs Prairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Jacobs Prairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Jacobs Prairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Jacobs Prairie 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.