Best PlacesManhattan, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Manhattan metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Photo by Jeff Vanuga, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service., CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Manhattan ranks 209th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on short commutes and population health. The weaker spots are civic engagement, distance from a big city, and transit.
The best neighborhoods in the Manhattan 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 Manhattan
The towns and districts of the Manhattan 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.
Wamego, St. Marys & St. George
More households have young kids, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Downtown Manhattan
Biking is better and more adults hold degrees.
Ogden
More residents vote, though it is noisier.
Junction City & Fort Riley
Health care is harder to reach and crime runs higher.
Manhattan shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 5%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Manhattan's strengths and weaknesses
Manhattan lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Short commutes, population health, and state infrastructure carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Civic engagement, distance from a big city, and transit hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Manhattan ranks high
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 96% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Manhattan ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 20% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 22% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Manhattan
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Manhattan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,778, 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 Manhattan's effective rate of 1.36%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Manhattan
Manhattan runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Manhattan.
Who works in Manhattan, and how
Work in Manhattan centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Manhattan
Manhattan has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 79% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Manhattan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Manhattan growing, and who is moving in?
Manhattan has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Kansas City, MO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Manhattan go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Manhattan, month by month
Manhattan sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 71° | 56° | 43° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 57° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Manhattan
The nearest airport, Manhattan Regional, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 101 miles away.
The best schools in and around Manhattan
Schools across Manhattan average a C+, better than 41% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Amanda Arnold ElemA− · 61% proficient
- West ElemA− · 59% proficient
- St George ElemA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Susan B Anthony Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Randolph MiddleC+ · 38% proficient
- Fort Riley Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Rock Creek High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Manhattan High School West/east CampusC+ · 39% proficient
- Riley County High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Manhattan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Manhattan 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 Manhattan against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Manhattan suits
Retirees
The weather beats 56% of metro areas and it is quieter than 83%.
Common questions about living in Manhattan
Is Manhattan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Manhattan ranks 209th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on short commutes, population health, and state infrastructure, and lowest on civic engagement 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 Manhattan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,983. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $70,778 median income, cost of living beats 34% of metro areas.
Is Manhattan safe?
Manhattan is safer than 49% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $370 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Manhattan?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 20. That works out to about 95 pleasant days a year, more than 56% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Manhattan?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Wamego, St. Marys & St. George, Downtown Manhattan, and Ogden. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Manhattan good for families?
Schools beat 41% of metro areas, crime safety beats 49%, and childcare runs $735 a month.
Is Manhattan good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 34% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 38% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Manhattan with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Manhattan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Manhattan 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.
Manhattan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Manhattan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Manhattan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Manhattan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Manhattan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Manhattan 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.