Best PlacesKensal, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Kensal, 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.
Kensal ranks 14,390th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Kensal
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.
Kensal's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kensal ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 148 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 87% of towns
Where Kensal ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Kensal
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kensal home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,175, 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 Kensal's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kensal
Kensal runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kensal.
Who works in Kensal, and how
Work in Kensal centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Kensal
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kensal.
What the weather is like in Kensal, month by month
Kensal sees roughly 148 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 21, with lows near 6. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 21° | 13° | 6° |
| April | 49° | 38° | 30° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 60° |
| October | 55° | 44° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Kensal
The nearest airport, Jamestown Regional, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 312 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kensal
Schools across Kensal average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kensal Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Barnes County North Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Pingree-buchanan Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Pingree-buchanan High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Barnes County North High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kensal school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kensal 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 Kensal against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Kensal
Is Kensal a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kensal ranks 14,390th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, the weather, and low taxes, 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 Kensal expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $321,636. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $93,175 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Kensal safe?
Kensal is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $571 per resident a year.
Compare Kensal with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kensal. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kensal 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.
Kensal detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kensal: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kensal: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kensal: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kensal: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kensal 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.