Best PlacesMaple Hill, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Maple Hill, 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.
Maple Hill ranks 7,173rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and tree cover ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Maple Hill
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.
Maple Hill's strengths and weaknesses
Where Maple Hill ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 86% of towns
Where Maple Hill ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Maple Hill
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Maple Hill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $101,102, 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 Maple Hill's effective rate of 0.98%, 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 Maple Hill
Maple Hill 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 Maple Hill.
Who works in Maple Hill, and how
Work in Maple Hill centers on agriculture & forestry and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Maple Hill
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Maple Hill.
What the weather is like in Maple Hill, month by month
Maple Hill sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 17° | 10° |
| April | 58° | 44° | 35° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 61° | 48° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Maple Hill
The nearest airport, Fort Dodge Regional, is about 61 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 124 miles away.
The best schools in and around Maple Hill
Schools across Maple Hill average an A−, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- North Union ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Demoney ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- North Union Middle SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Estherville Lincoln Central Middle SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- Estherville Lincoln Central High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- North Union High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Maple Hill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Maple Hill 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 Maple Hill against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Maple Hill
Is Maple Hill a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Maple Hill ranks 7,173rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, state finances, and what local pay buys, and lowest on tree cover and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Maple Hill expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $157,556. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $101,102 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Maple Hill safe?
Maple Hill is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $274 per resident a year.
Compare Maple Hill with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Maple Hill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Maple Hill 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.
Maple Hill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Maple Hill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Maple Hill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Maple Hill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Maple Hill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Maple Hill 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.